Project Lunarium: The Fall of Isen

Chapters

1. Ashes
2. Stories
3. "Make a difference"
4. Scibbi

1. Ashes

The city of Isen. Before the war, it was the capital of the rebels from the other clans who had come together due to a shared distaste for the wars that were constantly breaking out across the island. It had been founded on the West Coast of the North Region in order to keep as far away from these civil wars as possible.

The position they had chosen also seemed to want this for them. Sea Stone, a rare blue mineral that was the result of the ocean magically hardening on a night of a full moon, was a relatively common occurrence in the nearby firth of Pirate Bay. The material gave the illusion of an uneasy sea when viewed from a distance, so when every building was created using this material, it served as a form of protection for the populace by deterring any would-be attackers.

Years of peace and development had allowed this new country of Free Wolves to successfully develop into a thriving nation, and in the process, become a tempting target for other clans. The civil wars had laid bare many of these clan’s resources and brought about untold suffering due to the nigh endless conflict. However, despite the massive threat the Free Wolves posed due to their undamaged economy and strong army, some clans still decided to start wars.

Free Wolves had fought long and hard, first defeating Iron Wolves from the North, later Red Tails from the East, and lastly, the Lunar clan. Despite the reason for the nation’s formation, Free Wolves still felt the sting of war after what had been centuries of peace.

High casualties, weakened industry, ruined cities, and starvation. It was only a matter of time until Lunarium, having already conquered a whole island, would accomplish what two other clans had failed to.

However, thanks to an agreement between Lunarium and Free Wolves, Isen had avoided destruction. The agreement had spared four million citizens. However, this was only a temporary respite, as the war eventually found its way to Isen, and it did not care to arrive all too gently.

What had once been taverns and restaurants, places where wolves, werewolves, and wolf-ponies alike gathered to drink, eat, and listen to music, were now nothing more than splinters, torn to pieces by thousands of bombs and artillery shells. The glass walls, which once reflected the rays of the sun, now glimmered with the dancing lights of the fires that were raging all over the city. Songs that once resonated throughout the city had been silenced by the whistles of bombs and deafening explosions.

Areas once calmy traversed my thousands on a daily basis were now riddled with traps and mines, just waiting for any unaware scavenger. Beaches once pristine and best described as paradise suffered a similar fate to the city, with hundreds of craters from artillery pot-marking the sand, while dozens of ships lay beached and bleeding tons of oil into the ocean, turning the surface a chromatic black.

However, the thing to suffer the worst fate was the air. The putrid scent of decaying or burnt corpses and low hanging smoke choked the air, turning every breath into an insufferable necessity. Even gas masks didn’t provide much help, as when one would tread the more toxic sections of the city, the horrid miasma would manage to worm its way past the filters.

The war had changed everything, turning the world into a pile of ashes and dust, marked almost exclusively by blinding pillars of flame. However, the war wasn’t over just yet.

Wake up, darling. Wake up and fight for what is left. Don't let this sacrifice be wasted. Your battle has just begun.

Corporal Tarli woke up with a start on the floor of an empty room, gasping and shooting his eyes open to take in his surroundings.

“What the fuck was that voice? What’s happened? Where am I?” Each of these questions reverberated off the walls as the wolf-pony nervously began looking around. To his left, a small window allowed the flickering lights of large raging fires to leak in. From his position, Tarli could see dark, oppressive clouds that seemed to completely consume everything in the skies through the window, only reflecting the light from the source of their production. A moment later, when he looked down his torso, he noticed that half of his body was pinned beneath a heap of rubble. He tried to move in an effort to get free, but the weight of the stones was too much.

“It’s Tarli. Bravo 1-1. Come in, over,” he said into his headphone, trying to call out his squad, but only the sound of static greeted him. “It’s Tarli. Bravo 1-1, come in, over,” he repeated, less confident as flashes of memories began to come back. To begin, it was only single images. He could remember that he was standing on the roof, waiting for an evac chopper, but in a blink of an eye, a sudden fireball ripped off its tail, causing the machine to start flat spinning in his direction.

“Run!” Somebody’s scream kept echoing in his mind, though Tarli couldn’t remember to whom the voice belonged.

“Tarli, Bravo 1-1, come in. I’m trapped in a building in the exfil zone. I need help, over,” he said as another fragment of his memory resurfaced.

A sudden explosion followed by the sound of a crumbling building. The roof where he was standing unexpectedly collapsed, sending him into darkness. Tarli looked up, and it seemed that his mind was right. Through the hole above him, he could see dark clouds slowly drifting.

“Imma try on group’s channel” he whispered, turning around a small knob on his headphone. As he set up the right frequency, a loud beep came out.

“Corporal Tarli Harlki. E3, Bravo 1, 3rd Assault Group. Come in, over,” he said with hope in his voice, which slowly disappeared with each second of static and harsh noise that followed.

It can’t be true. They couldn’t just die. He thought, trying one more time, but still nothing.

Anybody… answer, please. Just pick up the fucking headphone. He could feel tears slowly appearing in his eyes. The realisation that he was alone in a destroyed city, trapped underneath rubble began to sink its hooks into his mind. His death seemed unavoidable. Either he would starve, or the enemy would find him. In both cases, this crumbled roof seemed to be his grave. Tarli set up a global frequency, reaching all Lunar forces in a ten-kilometre range.

“Corporal Tarli Harlki. E3, Bravo 1, 3rd Assault Group, 203rd Assault Division. Anybody… please come in, o-over,” he said, trying to keep his voice from breaking as he waited for an answer. The seconds of silence seemed to last forever. Tarli laid back onto a pile of rubble behind him and closed his eyes, waiting for death.

Come on. Get your shit together. Maybe your radio just doesn’t work.

“Even so, I’m fucked anyway. I can’t get out from here” he said to himself as he ineffectively moved his legs.

You call that “Trying”? My granny puts more effort into getting out of her bed.

This answer shocked him and made him wonder if he’d just berated himself. He clenched his teeth, took a deep breath, and pushed the rubble again, trying to free his legs just a bit. It worked somehow, as the rock moved, but it was still not enough to escape.

“See? No way,” he grunted as the rubble once again pinned down his limbs.

Are you giving up already? And you call yourself a descendant of Free Wolves, huh? Just a pussy, nothing more

“What did you say, cunt?!” Those words made the wolf-pony pissed. Once again, he pushed the stone on top of him, however, this time, it was way harder than before. Finally, the rubble moved enough to allow him to free his legs. The rubble suddenly shifted as he did this, causing him to remember that his thick, dark-green tail was still under the rock he was pushing on. In a second, he flicked it up so it was between his hind legs, and just in time, as the stone hit the ground again when it slipped from his paws.

“Free at last,” he cheered before pain shot through his entire body like a shockwave, causing him to release a strained groan. “Gimme a second. I need to walk this off,” Tarli slowly slid down a pile of rubble to a concrete floor, careful with where he put his dirty brown paws. When he tried to stand, a wave of incredible pain suddenly shot up his right rear leg, paralysing his body. This pain caused his leg to involuntarily lift up, resulting in the wolf-pony to lose his balance and fall to the ground, loudly growling in pain.

“Not good,” he whispered, checking his leg and releasing a hiss at even the gentlest touch. He tried to move his digits, but they weren’t responding. Tarli was about to pull out a bandage from his med box, but it wasn’t where it should be - on his belt. He looked around the room frantically and noticed a section of his brown belt peeking out from underneath the same pile of rubble where he had been trapped only moments ago.

“Fuck’s sake” he murmured while hopping back over. The box thankfully hadn’t been stuck as bad as he had been thinking. He took the belt into his mouth and pulled, but the med box resisted.

“Damnit! Won’t come out easily?” he asked himself, still holding the belt in his teeth. He placed his left paw on a pile and pulled back as hard as he could. Unfortunately, he used too much of his strength, and when the med box broke free, it whipped back and slammed into his nose, sending him to the ground again.

“Cunt!” he hissed, looking at the white box with a green cross painted on it while massaging his nose. The med box thankfully wasn’t all that damaged. At least, it looked better than its owner. Tarli opened the box after the pain in his muzzle subsided and pulled out a small elastic bandage.

“Ain’t much, but it’s better than nothing,” he said, carefully bandaging his damaged leg. “So, what now?” He went closer to the window and started looking for any landmark that would help him determine his location, but everything had changed since the last time he saw the city. He snorted in annoyance, finding nothing helpful.

I recommend finding your squad. He hissed with pain as the voice caused him to stand up instantly, forgetting about his wounded leg.

“That’s an idea” he nodded, limping towards a broken doorway. “Maybe we’ll at least find their bodies, and a working radio”. Once he entered a tight corridor, the black, toxic cloud mercilessly began stinging his eyes. The soot in the air burned his lungs and forced him into a fit of coughing as he tried to locate a staircase. But the only things he could make out through his blurred vision were the outlines of rubble and the burned remains of furniture.

Not too long after he started this search, he spotted a huge stream of black smoke emanating from an open doorway a few meters to his left.

“Got ya,” he said, crouching down and beginning to crawl towards it underneath the shifting black ceiling of toxic smog, doing his best to breathe as shallowly as possible.

“Oh shit,” Tarli whispered when he reached his destination, only to notice the staircase’s poor condition. The entire flight of stairs was gone, save for three platform-like pieces that were somehow still attached to the sides. The wolf-pony peeked out and stared at the bottom, instantly regretting his decision. All he could see there was a lake of fire and dozens of mangled rebars protruding from the floor like spikes.

“No other option I guess,” he said, backing off. With only three legs in decent condition, even the smallest jump would be a challenge, if not impossible. Though, it was his only option if he wanted to survive. Otherwise, he would slowly suffocate from either carbon dioxide or monoxide poisoning. That was if the building didn’t just collapse before then.

“Here goes nothing” Tarli ran as fast as he could and jumped as soon as he reached the door frame. After he passed the threshold, he made the mistake of looking down at the lake of fire, causing his body to lock up from the realisation of how close to death he was. Being on solid ground and seeing a deathtrap down the staircase felt nothing like being in the air right above it. The landing caught him unprepared, making the wolf-pony squealed as he hit the floor with his damaged leg. Tears appeared in his eyes, and Tarli curled up as a really strong wave of pain enveloped his body.

“Fuck!” he screamed as loud as he could. He needed a few minutes before he was able to stand up again, and this time, his fight for balance was even harder. Tarli carefully peeked out over the edge of the landing to try and figure out what to do next. As he looked down, his face went pale when he noticed that there were still two more jumps ahead of him that looked just as bad. The fire below him seemed to be glowing even brighter, appearing as an open stove burner with spikes.

“Guess I didn’t think this through,” he whispered, gathering his strength for another jump. He looked at the third platform which seemed to be almost impossible to reach, as the gap between the one he was about to jump to and it was several metres wide.

That’s gonna be tough, Tarli thought as he looked at the fire again, which only seemed to be getting bigger. The stairway was slowly filling up with smoke, which was becoming denser with each passing minute.

“It doesn’t look that bad,” He said, trying to cheer himself up as he pressed his body against the wall to make as much room as possible before then snorting, “At least I’ll die trying.”

Fighting with the pain coursing through his whole body, he sprinted to the edge and jumped. The landing once again wasn’t soft, and he hit the platform with his broken leg. The pain instantly sent the wolf-pony to the ground screaming and hissing.

“I wonder where my squad is.” Tarli tried to distract himself in order to ease the pain, but it didn’t work. No matter what, the leg wasn’t going to make this journey any easier. “As soon as I reach the street, I’m going to head to the town hall. Lunars should still be there.” For some reason, this thought gave him quite the surge of hope and strength, which quickly faded as soon as he looked at the impossible obstacle he had seen when he had first looked down from the doorway.

“Long jump. With fucked leg…” he murmured, picturing himself as he fell into the inferno. He could feel the rebar stab into his body like spears. If the temperature wouldn’t kill him, those metal rods surely would. The wolf-pony shook his head, trying to dismiss those thoughts as he stood up. Taking a deep breath, which he instantly regretted as it caused him to begin choking, he made as much room as possible on what little he had and tried to calculate a jump.

“I just hope the fall ain’t gonna hurt,” he said before running as fast as he could. Once in the air, a spark of doubt that he wouldn’t make it crossed his mind.

Tarli threw his paws forward, hoping to catch the edge of the last landing. When his right paw barely missed, the visage of his imminent death appeared in his mind once again. He could feel the heat of the fire at the bottom of the shaft. Then, his left paw managed to catch the edge. He grabbed onto it as hard as he could and quickly threw his second paw up and started to fight for a grip, but his claws were slipping.

“Luna, if you are somewhere up there, please, don’t let me die. Not like this,” he started to pray, and apparently, it worked, because his claw caught a small protrusion on the floor, stopping his fall. He roared as he redirected all his strength into pulling himself up. When he was halfway to safety, he screamed again and pushed his body to its limits.

“I need to… rest,” he murmured, breathing heavily as he threw himself as far away from the edge as possible. The smoke was slowly filling his lungs, but he had no power left to even cough it out.

Fall asleep here and the carbon’s gonna finish you off.

He heard the voice in his head again and cursed him, but he was right. Tarli stood up and jumped over a small gap between himself and the exit. Even if it was a really small jump, he landed on the ground like a brick. He just couldn’t keep his balance anymore. At the end of the corridor, he could see a bright light piercing through a dense layer of smoke.

Come on, mate. No time to rest. The voice tried to rush Tarli. He groaned and started to crawl towards the light, fighting with grogginess, but suddenly, the world in front of him began to spin.

Carbon. You need to keep going! The voice kept shouting at him. He was close. Just a few meters separated him from freedom, and then darkness came.

Tarli! He heard just before he lost consciousness.

_____________________________________________

The chill of the stone street caused Tarli to wake up. He instantly looked around in panic and confusion, only to notice that he was surrounded by soldiers seemingly frozen in time. The whole area was strewn with fireballs. The air was swarming with countless bullets, many of which were glowing like fireflies, while others looked to have recently hit a soldier’s head and turned it into a bloody mist.

As Tarli was taking in his surroundings, he noticed a small barricade that had been torn apart by a huge explosion. Through a storm of broken wooden planks, rubble, and dust, the wolf-pony could see that several unlucky soldiers had been turned into living pincushions by the resulting shrapnel before being thrown into the air.

Tarli stood up, seeing only more carnage and an APC. The huge, six-wheeled armoured vehicle had apparently been slowly rolling up the street. From this side, it seemed to be fine, but when Tarli moved closer, avoiding more mangled bodies stuck in time, he spotted a rather big, red fireball on its right side. An anti-tank grenade seemed to have found a weak spot in the vehicle’s protection, launching its melted metal into the assault compartment and slightly pushing the armoured carrier to its left, as the APC’s small turret shot at something hiding between buildings, sending its twelve-point-seven millimetre bullets into the shadow.

Tarli came closer and slightly touched its massive body. His paw was greeted by the freezing cold steel and the feeling that his senses had been struck by what he could only describe as engine vibrations, even though the world was in stasis.

As Tarli passed the APC, he quickly noticed another massive vehicle. It was the huge, unmistakable shape of a Janara main battle tank. Lunarium’s finest piece of machinery, and the backbone of their armoured formations. It was leading the assault and slightly angling its body in order to give the infantry as much cover as possible. Tarli could read a motto First to fight on its armour skirt. Those tanks were indeed the first ones to engage the enemies, attracting thousands of bullets, but only showing slightly scratched paint from such assaults. The Janara was standing strong, sending dots into the shadows from both his coaxial light machine gun and heavy machine gun on top of its turret.

Tarli slowly looked up as a Lunar flag mounted on the wall above him caught his attention. It was the only other object that wasn’t frozen in place, as an unnoticeably gentle wind was slowly blowing against it and causing it to wave. The four-pointed star on it was shining with a silver light, though it was slowly fading like a candle at the end of its life in a dark room. The flag seemed to be getting closer to the wolf-pony though, despite the fact neither seemed to be moving. He could feel a strange power coming from the star, one which was slowly being snuffed out.

Soon after, the star turned black, and the edge of the flag began to burn, converting the material into ashes and smoke in a matter of seconds, ash and smoke which commenced surrounding the wolf-pony and obfuscating his sight. The haze slowly disappeared after this, revealing that he was now encircled by a wall of flames. Tarli began looking around, trying to find a way to escape the death trap he now found himself in, but the fire encompassed him on all sides and was only getting closer by the second. He ran towards the red wall, thinking about jumping over the flames, but came to a stop soon after when he realised that he likely wouldn’t be able to clear the flames without getting burned.

Several minutes desperately searching for an exit followed, only for the first tongues of flame to gently touch his white-stained right, rear leg. He jumped at this development and began to hit his leg against the ground in order to extinguish the fire, but it had no effect, the fire simply continued to quickly spread up over his body. He felt an incredible pain when the heat reached his head, only to then dull his senses. Tarli tried to scream, but as soon as his mouth opened, the fire jumped inside, burning his tongue, and going down his gullet to sear his vocal cords.

In a split second, the fire had reached the lungs and engulfed his guts. He felt to the ground, twitching and shaking in agony, before losing consciousness once again.

“You all will burn alive” he heard a deep, harsh voice intone. A moment later, Tarli couldn’t feel or hear anything at all.

______________________________

A sudden cough dragged Tarli out of his dream. A large amount of black liquid was erupting from his mouth as his body desperately tried to expel the soot from his lungs. The rapid contractions weren’t permitting him to even look around, not to mention stand up. With a heavy breath, at last, he managed to crawl out of the smoke-filled building. The soft wind gently touching his dark-green mane upon his successful withdrawal. The breeze may not have been as clean as it had been months ago, but it was better than what was inside.

He managed to crawl across the street, fighting with his need to cough the entire time, before finally reaching a brick wall. As he forced himself into a sitting position to lean back against it, he took in his surroundings. All around him lay the ashes and burnt bodies of citizens and soldiers. Everyone was stuck in a single position, appearing as nothing more than fragile mannequins, ones which would turn to dust upon the lightest touch. It looked as if somebody had tried to reconstruct the city using only small dolls found in a fire. Some wolves were stuck in running positions, some seemed to be trying to take cover when the flames got them. But some looked to have been caught unprepared. Tarli noticed a wolf sitting next to a burnt table with a burnt cup and the black remains of a phone still in his paws. These statues looked exactly like those he had seen in his dream.

Tarli looked up and noticed the yawning black holes of missing windows on almost every building, most of which were partly collapsed and spewing flames from their interiors. This street used to be filled with the colour of Sea Rock, but now everything had been turned grey and black.

“Fuck me…” Tarli tiredly began summarising everything he had experienced so far, wincing the entire time as his leg began to hurt again. He’d woken up in a burning building just a few minutes ago already exhausted. He just wanted to fall asleep and never wake up, avoid this whole journey through hell. After all, he was dead anyway. It was just a matter of time. He couldn’t run nor sneak around with a broken leg, so if he met an enemy on his way, he’d be doomed. Not like he would have an idea of where to go anyway. His squad was missing and HQ wasn’t responding. High chance his radio was busted, so he couldn’t count on any help. He was swearing at himself for not taking a map with him, but on the other hand, he knew they wouldn’t give it. It was reserved only for squad leaders, which he wasn’t.

Giving up already? The voice had returned, which only made Tarli mad.

“What the fuck am I supposed to do?” He screamed with tears in his eyes. “My leg is broken, I dunno where my squadmates are, I dunno where to go nor where I am. If Lizard pushed us out of the city, I am as good as dead, cause I’m guessing all the evac-zones have been compromised.” He angrily yelled all this between coughing out what remaining soot his lungs still had left.

Townhall? Maybe they’re still there?

“No way. It’s right in the middle of town. Ain’t gonna make it with a broken leg.” He paused for a second, looking at his bandaged paw. “Anyway, I don’t even know the way. Everything seems so different now,” he added sadly, looking for any street nameplates, but finding none, not a single legible one. All of them were broken or covered with black soot.

Okay. Listen. Maybe we should start by splinting your leg. You won’t get anywhere like this.

The wolf-pony nodded. “That’s something.” He began looking around himself for anything that he could use for that. Fortunately, he was surrounded by planks and metal pipes. He eventually found two metal rods that matched the lengths he needed. He quickly started bandaging them to his leg as tight as possible, trying to hold back tears due to the pain each touch brought with it. After that, he inspected his work. Ain’t perfect but will do the job.

“Alright. At least we’ve dealt with that bullshit,” he whispered, looking around one more time. Nothing caught his attention, so he pulled himself up onto his three still working legs. For a second, the world spun in front of his eyes, making him fight for his balance.

“I guess I’ve got some kind of poisoning,” he said, slowly walking down the street, hoping to find anybody not willing to kill him. After a few meters, he felt like something heavy had been attached to his legs and the world began to spin around, making him sick. Suddenly, in the corner of his eye, he noticed movement in a window to his right. Right where he had been lying.

“Contact. Right, parter” he whispered, quickly hiding behind a pile of rubble. He wasn’t sure if he was hallucinating or if it really was somebody sneaking around. He sat in his cover, staring at the window for quite a while, waiting for any further movement. When he was about to stand up and keep going, a strange shadow flashed in the building again. Tarli wasn’t sure what it was though. All he could see was a four-legged creature. With wings? Am I crazy?

“Are you kidding me,” he whispered, trying to remember what wolf species had wings. As quickly and quietly as possible, he moved to the window, trying to sneak a peek through it. All he saw though was an empty room with a broken table in the middle and a pile of rubble to the left.

Winged or not, it surely isn’t a Lizard. They move on two legs. He changed his position to the next window. Suddenly, he heard steps in the nearby shadows.

“Got ya!” he yelled, jumping through a window, but nothing was there. He now noticed the remains of a huge wardrobe next to the pile of rubble. He stood there for a second, waiting, but nobody was coming. He was about to give up and get back on the street when he heard a silent noise from underneath the rubble. There was a small hole in it, and fresh tracks visible in front of it. He carefully came closer, preparing himself for a trap.

“Anybody in there?” he asked, doubtfully peeking inside the small cave, but all he could see was darkness. He put his nose deeper into the hole. “Are you….?” He broke off when something suddenly punched his nose, making him sit down on the burnt wooden floor.

“Oof! I am on your side!” he yelled with a combination of fear, anger, and surprise.

“Who are you?” He heard a female voice coming out from the hole.

“Could you come out? I’d like to see who I’m talking to,” He ignored the question, massaging his slightly bleeding nose. Whoever was there, they surely knew how to punch.

“Say who are you first,” the answer came out, and Tarli rolled his eyes.

“Corporal Tarli Harlki. E3, Bravo 1, 3rd Assault Group, 203rd Assault Division” he said impatiently before waiting for a response. For a short time, nothing happened, and Tarli was about to peek inside again. Suddenly, somebody started to move under the pile. A few moments later, a strange, bright-yellow nose peeked out, covered by a long, sky-blue mane.

“Holy… a pony?” Tarli yelled happily as the creature slowly came out, looking at him with its bright-green eyes. He never would’ve expected anything like this here. As she continued to emerge, the wings on her sides became visible. This was what Tarli had seen earlier.

“Pegasus, to be more precise,” She said, sitting in front of Tarli, looking to the ground in shame.

Author's Note

Here is Tarli's art ^^

2. Stories

Tarli couldn’t believe his eyes. In this whole mess, the pegasus was the last thing he’d expected to see. The very nature of her existence seemed to defy everything this world seemed to embody. Her eyes were too soft and full of life, serving only to further mark her as an aberration in this hellscape.

Her bright-yellow fur even appeared to be able to banish darkness, reflecting the red blazes coming through the broken windows nearby. It was almost as if the sun itself had decided to come down from the sky and take a pony form. And speaking about the sky, the pony before him had a thick, pastel-blue mane that was only made more transfixing due to the contrast it had with her coat. Rather than only going down one side of her head and neck, the mane ran behind both ears down the sides of her head before coming back together at her chest, making it look from the front like a blue heart. Tarli found it cute, and couldn’t help but begin shuffling on his paws slightly.

But most of all, the one trait that Tarli couldn’t wrap his mind around was that there didn’t appear to be a speck of soot or debris on her. Despite the dozens of raging fires and the lack of any undamaged buildings, she looked no more disheveled than an average citizen less than a week ago.
If I’m not mistaken, you seem to be preoccupied with her appearance, don’t you think?Tarli heard the voice inside his head return, and based on the tone, it was clearly making fun of him. He was about to yell “Fuck off” back, before meeting pegasus’ green eyes, which caused him to forget the tongue in his mouth. Those irises looked like grass, slowly filling his mind with pictures of the greenfields near Isen, waving gently as the soft wind blew through the open space from the bay. Seeing their lazy movement and shine just before the shells hit the coast and turned them into a scorched wasteland was what brought some kind of peace to his soul.

“Are you just gonna stare at me?” Said pegasus turned her head down and to her right as her cheeks turned crimson and her ears folded back. It was only after seeing this reaction that Tarli realized that since finding her, he had been doing nothing but looking at this small creature as if she were a ghost.

“Excuse me,” he quickly murmured, moving his gaze off of the pegasus. Not wanting the current situation to lapse into silence, Tarli made an attempt to start a proper conversation. “Tarli,” he said awkwardly, raising his paw in tiny pegasus’s direction, only to then mentally face-palm. “I already told you that, didn’t I?”

The pegasus covered her smirk with a hoof and quickly replied with the same gesture. ”Wind Chaser, but everybody calls me Softy,” she replied, and almost immediately looked at Tarli’s bandaged leg. “What happened?” she asked gently, coming a bit closer, making the wolf-pony even more uncomfortable.

You really suck at face to face interactions.

“I had a small accident in a building nearby, but it’s all good,” he said, stepping back a bit, though the pegasus didn’t seem to be convinced.

“What building? I’ve been scavenging this area for a long time and I’ve never seen you,” Softy replied, her voice tinged with a hint of suspicion, frowning as she tried to remember which building she may have missed while on scavenging duties.

“This one, across the street.” Said Tarli, pointing his paw at the building where the helicopter had crashed. Softy gasped and she quickly came closer, giving the wolf-pony no time to react.

“Wait, what are you doing!” He yelled shocked when the pegasus had started checking his wounds.

“I saw the chopper crash into it a few hours ago. Were you inside when it happened? Were you the pilot?” Her series of questions slowly caused Tarli to develop a headache. He gently put his paw on her head and pushed her away slightly.

“I’m fine. I just arrived here. I was trying to jump over a small gap and slipped. Nothing serious,” he lied, trying to calm down Softy. She sighed before looking at the ground.

“I’m sorry, old habits,” she murmured, still staring at Tarli’s bandaged leg with a look that conveyed a desire to treat it.

“What do you mean? Are you a medic?” He had to start thinking about her nickname. Softy, huh? I bet twelve lunaruses that she was a doctor or corps he thought, still staring at the tiny pegasus.

“I used to be a haematologist practitioner at a local hospital.” She looked sadly out the window.

“Oh, great. I know that Isen always had a problem with those. Low wages, long shifts... only crazy ones wanted to work here,” Tarli smiled, trying to cheer up Softy, but she looked at him with a neutral expression, making him wonder if it had been the right thing to say in this situation.

“It didn’t matter. I just wanted to help wolves,” she said, getting closer to the window and staring at the oppressive clouds and pillars of flame. From ground level, they seemed to be even more massive than before.

The Wolf-pony subtly approached the pegasus, trying to figure out the correct words.

He wanted to cheer her up somehow, but he had never been a good speaker, and this whole mess inside of his head was only complicating things. In the end, he ended up sitting next to Softy in complete silence as she looked to be going through her memories. His best guess was that she was recalling her life before the city turned to ashes.
As he looked at her and thought this, Tarli decided to follow her lead and try to dig his memories out of darkness that had inundated his mind, but all he was greeted with was a harrowing void. This lack of definitive information regarding his history was causing him to bring his pre-war existence, before he awoke in the burnt building, into doubt.

“Do you want me to check your leg?” Softy’s warm voice dragged Tarli out of his mental exploration, making him crestfallen.

“Nah, it’s fine,” he said quickly, doing his best to hide the fact that each movement of his leg was the very definition of agony, but he was a terrible actor. Softy rolled her eyes.

“Every, single time” she whispered tiredly, pushing a shocked Tarli’s side.

“Wait! I’m fine!” He tried his best to resist while lying on the floor, but Softy was assuredly experienced with similar patients. She began to unwrap the improvised dressing around his legs, gently pulling out the metal pipes, all while displaying she was a true professional. Tarli was about to oppose what she was doing once again, but her dead-serious look got him to reconsider. He closed eyes, preparing for a wave of pain to accompany even her slightest touch.

“I swear, it’s not gonna hurt,” Softy calmly said before the pipes hit the ground with a loud series of clangs. Apparently, she was right, as her touch was painless. Her soft hooves were moving around the damaged limb so lightly that Tarli found it at some points strangely relaxing. The best way he could describe the feeling would be to equate it to a swarm of ants running across his fur. He closed his eyes as his mind slowly melted.

“Not good,” said Softy, rebandaging Tarli’s hind leg, dragging him out from the dreamland. He shot his eyes open as he felt the cold metal pipes being returned to their positions. “Seems you liked it though,” she said, smiling warmly with a dose of satisfaction. Yet again, Tarli was grateful for the thick layer of soot on his face, because he could feel the heat radiating from his cheeks.

“H-how’s the leg?” He tried to organically steer the conversation back to the original topic without exposing his feelings, but it was a harder prospect than he thought.

“Pretty bad. You’re gonna need a splint, that’s for sure. I think your bone moved a bit as well. Have you been jumping with it recently?” She looked at the wolf-pony suspiciously, causing Tarli to look to the ground to avoid eye contact.

“Maybe… just a bit.” He murmured, trying to sound convincing, but failed once again. However, Softy only rolled her eyes as she finished her bandaging. Tarli looked at her work and found it to be more professional than before. She definitely knows how to do it, he thought while standing up. A wave of dizziness suddenly struck him and almost caused him to hit the floor again, but Softy caught him just in time.

“Are you okay?” She asked when the wolf-pony finally found his pawing.

“Yeah. Just too much carbon,” He answered, but he wasn’t sure if that was the real reason. The pegasus stared at him, clearly thinking about something.

“I have some white crystal essence in my hideout. It should help ya,” she replied after a short pause. Tarli nodded, and before he knew what was going on, the pegasus suddenly rushed to his med box and pulled out a bandage.

“One more thing,” she deftly wrapped the dressing around Tarli’s body before he could react, stabilizing his broken leg.

“Damn, you’re fast,” he said impressed with her skill. Softy simply replied with an innocent smile.

“You’re not the first one to say that,” she replied with quiet giggling before heading towards the doors leading to the main street. “Imma wait for ya outside. We have to go. This place won’t be safe forever,” she said while disappearing behind a wall, leaving Tarli alone with his thoughts.

She is quite unique, don’t ya think? The voice spoke as Tarli stared at the doorway with a mixture of confusion and relief. He found her to be indeed quite unusual, and yet somehow familiar, though he really doubted it.

That being said, her reaction to his wounds made him kinda worried. She was acting like an angel, helping strangers without a thought. In this world, she was like a crystal in an ocean of detritus, and his mind was demanding he protect her at all cost. He couldn’t let her brilliance fade or disappear like the city that surrounded them. Though, he wasn’t sure if he was the right wolf to complete this task. I’m not the hero, nor the soldier, those words had been echoing inside his head since discovering that his radio only responded to his calls with static.

Let’s go, you don’t want to make your lady wait, do you? The voice giggled.

“Seems like you’re having a great time,” Tarli hissed, keeping his voice as low as possible so Softy won’t hear him.

Your struggling during the conversation was quite enjoyable. Its laugh caused Tarli to frown.

“I have a question…,” he stopped half-way to the doorway. There was something bugging him about this voice in his head. It seemed too independent to be his own thoughts.

What’s that? That was all the answer he needed to confirm that this voice wasn’t his own.

“Who are you?” he asked with unabashed curiosity. The voice chuckled before answering.

A friend, it answered simply, leaving even more questions.

“What do I call ya, then?” Tarli was far from being satisfied with this answer, but at least this confirmed that he wasn't completely crazy.

Whatever you want. It can be even, “An inner cunt”, but I don’t think it’s the right choice. Tarli could hear some kind of witty tone in the reply which made him confident that whoever was talking to him was using telepathy.

“Karit…,” Tarli whispered the first Lunar name that came to his mind. He wasn’t sure why it was the first thought, because it wasn’t that common at all, but it was better than calling it “The voice”..

Fair enough, The voice answered, seemingly satisfied with the choice. So… if we finally know each other, maybe we should join your lovely pegasus, huh? The giggling in Karit’s voice came back, causing Tarli to frown once again as he walked towards the doorway, coughing a black liquid out of his lungs.

Maybe “The inner cunt” wouldn’t be that bad a choice after all? Tarli thought and grinned slightly.

____________________________

Tarli walked outside and started to look around for Softy. He spotted her across the street, sitting next to the burnt body of the wolf resting next to the table and holding something that used to be a phone. She looked deeply thoughtful as she stared at the dead citizen. Tarli was a bit surprised at first, but quickly realized that unlike him, she wasn’t a soldier. Even though the wolf-pony had lost a good portion of his memories, the old behaviours, and the pictures flashing in front of his eyes got him to care much less about the dead bodies scattered everywhere.

He slowly approached Softy and immediately noticed small tears shining at the corners of her eyes.

“Hey?” he said gently, trying to get her attention, but Softy said nothing. Her green eyes were rooted to the wolf. Tarli gently poked her shoulder, but even this had no effect.

“Have you ever wondered what stories they had?” she said quietly, her tone somber and aloof, taking away Tarli’s voice for a second. He wasn’t sure what she was talking about. Softy turned her head slightly, giving him an unusual gaze full of pain and helpless. “You know, what kind of lives they lived before they died?” She added, seeing the confusion on Tarli’s face.

“Uh… not quite. I’ve seen too many of them” he replied honestly, seeing images of similarly lifeless individuals from the past flash before his eyes. He may not remember everything, but his mind seemed determined to recollect the parts of his past he would prefer to remain forgotten.

“Oh.” Softy sounded disappointed with this answer, making Tarli feel bad. He didn’t mean to sound like an emotionless soldier who took enemies’ lives without blinking. In fact, he was just a medic. He had trained to save those around him, not kill them.

He sighed deeply, grabbing the pegasus’ attention. “I’m gonna be honest with ya. That accident I had cleared out my memories. I can only remember fragments of my past,” he said, noticing Softy’s questionable look. She looked to be about to ask something, but he just continued.

“Ya know. I can’t remember who I was before the war. I can’t remember my friends or even my family, if I had one,” he paused for a second, trying to gather his thoughts again. Softy sat in front of him and waited.

“I just want to say, we all have stories. I’m pretty sure that all of us were someone else before this hell happened. I guess, this guy here…,” he pointed his paw at the grey mannequin before them and sighed deeply, “I think he was just another citizen living here. Maybe he’s got a text message from his girlfriend saying that she was gonna be late, or maybe he was checking the news on how the war was going, or maybe he was just playing a mobile game while waiting for food. I dunno. The thing is, his story ended with the blaze of incendiary bombs hitting the street, and I don’t need my memories to know that my job here is to not let others stories end like his,” Tarli once again took a deep breath and stared at Softy, waiting for an answer, wondering if he should say something more.

They sat in front of each other for some time after that, the interminable silence and lack of movement causing Tarli to start seeing dead soldiers in his mind’s eye. Many of them. In one memory, a young private was bleeding out on his paws, another, several soldiers had been blown up by a perfectly tossed grenade, devastating their bodies. He heard a voice saying “You failed to save them”. It wasn’t Karit, this one he had heard in his vision back in the building. Harsh, cold, and full of blame. He’d failed to save many lives, but deep down, he knew that not all of them can be saved.

Suddenly, Softy hugged him. Tarli gasped in shock, initially trying to push the pegasus away, but stopping himself after feeling her soft fur touching him through openings in his damaged ballistic vest.

“Pardon me?” His whispered, sounding far sadder than he had intended. Softy pulled away and looked into his eyes. From this distance, those eyes were even brighter than before, though, they were now full of sadness and… guilty?

“I’m sorry” she whispered ashamedly, stepping further back. Tarli was confused. He opened his mouth, trying to say something, but Softy was faster than his thoughts.

“I didn’t want to bring back bad memories for you. It’s just…,” she paused for a second, wiping her eyes. Tarli waited for her to continue, looking at her patiently. He didn’t want to force her. He wanted her to speak once she was ready to do so.

“I used to just be a nurse. I’ve never seen so many dead bodies in one place. Those burnt wolves… they look like mannequins, but still like living beings… It’s something I wasn’t familiar with… it feels like…,” she was taking a lot of breaks, clearly trying to find the correct words. Tarli put a paw on her nose, stopping the words from flowing. She didn’t have to say anymore. He gave her an understanding look and hugged her.

“I know…” he whispered as he felt her tears slowly moving down his back. She wasn’t a soldier nor a wolf who’d grew up in this world full of pain and death. The war was something new for her, and Tarli had seen it in her eyes the moment they met. She was trying to stay strong, but it’s hard when you’re alone in this madness and the only thing you hear are the bullets flying above your head. They’d only met a few minutes ago, but clearly she needed somebody who would understand the feeling of being inside this hell. Tarli could only guess for how long she had been here. However, it’s more than clear that it’s been too long.

They sat and hugged each other for quite a long time before Softy finally pulled away. She sniffed before once again wiping away her tears. Tarli noticed that the majority of the pain in her eyes had disappeared. The wolf-pony could only guess for how long it had been sitting inside her, but the most important thing was that she’d finally been able to cry it out. She did care about others’ lives and Tarli once again promised to himself to protect her from the darkness around.

“Better?” he asked gently, looking at her shaking, sky-blue eyes. Softy nodded, trying to not look at the burnt wolves nearby.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” She said, quickly trotting down the street while avoiding the grey mannequins. Tarli followed, trying to not touch them as well. He knew that those empty shells were the only things left to remind others of the innocents who’d died in the fire.

_______

The wolf-pony and pegasus crossed though another destroyed building, moving through a broken wall that opened into what was once a bar. Softy suddenly stopped before going any further. Tarli slowly approached her, wondering what the reason for this abrupt halt was.

“Watch out. Scrags plant mines in places like this,” she whispered, slowly scanning the floor. Tarli stood next to her and peeked inside. The room was unutterably spatial. He spotted many broken chairs and tables scattered all around the place, with the bar in the middle being the only thing that was somehow still in one piece. The massive gold-trimmed wooden furniture that occupied the building had turned black due to the endless smoke that filled the building.

Suddenly Softy pointed at a small wooden plank lying just a few steps ahead. Tarli hadn’t noticed anything special about it, but upon closer inspection, he could see a small piece of green metal beneath it.

“Landmine,” he hissed, noticing that the trap had been expertly placed and hidden. Positioned just in front of doors to catch any would-be survivors.

“Why?” He asked, looking at Softy with curiosity. She rolled her eyes like the answer was too simple.

“They plant them to kill any soldiers left behind. Bars, restaurants, basically anywhere that might have food or something to drink. It’s a good way to not have to deal with them personally,” she said sadly, slowly approaching the trap, and carefully avoiding it.

“Well, I guess they don’t care about civs,” Tarli replied, following her steps. As they kept moving forward, the wolf-pony could see even more explosive devices of different sizes hidden in dark places. Underneath one pile of rubbish, somebody even placed an anti-tank mine, for some reason.

“Who really does?” she asked, appallingly calmly while jumping over a small wire, connecting two wooden parts.

“I do,” Tarli spoke and they got closer to the bar. Tarli peeked over the wooden countertop and stopped the gag reaction at the last second. Softy quickly ran towards him, involuntarily trying to take a look, but wolf-pony smoothly pushed her away.

“No. You don’t wanna see this,” he said, fighting with his stomach.

“What’s there,” she asked curiously, but Tarli could see in her eyes, that she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know the answer after all.

“I think I’ve found the barman,” he said, as a lump in his throat went away.

“Been searching for him for quite a long time to get his staff room key. Now at least I know that he didn’t leave,” she snorted with a shy smile, which quickly disappeared as Tarli gave her a scolding look. He rolled his eyes, and kept moving, avoiding more tripwires and mines

When they'd reached a huge window across the room, the area’d begun to gently vibrate. Tarli quickly hid behind the wall and looked outside. The whole road was covered in smoke, so he couldn’t see what was coming. Softy quickly joined him as the vibrations got stronger. For sure it was a heavy vehicle closing in, but it was hard to tell if it was an enemy or an ally.

“What is going on?” Softly asked as the wooden floor shook as if they were experiencing an earthquake. Shortly after, Tarli could hear the sound of the engine slowly raising.

“Vec. Following the engine’s sound, it’s not ours.” He responded, pushing himself harder to the wall. He knew the sound and it wasn’t friendly. Lunar combat vehicles were much louder and with higher revving engines. They sounded more like turbines than typical engines.

“I thought you lost your memories,” Softly asked in confusion, as the vehicle got closer.

“I have, but once you hear that sound, you can’t forget it, no matter what,” He said, slowly peeking out of his cover. In the smoke at the end of the street, a large black silhouette appeared, reminding Tarli of the first days of the Lizard offensive when a horde of similar black shapes slowly came out of a covering of smoke, rolling up the beaches and breaking through the first line of Lunar defences. The pictures of amphibious tanks closing in, completely ignoring the heavy suppressing fire, once again filled Tarli’s vision, paralyzing him, as The silhouette was slowly coming out of the smoke he began to feel even more defenceless and weak. During his mental fight with the flood of memories, he noticed Softy’s screams, but his body was refusing to move.

Suddenly, a strong pull tossed him behind the wall, and before his eyes, Softy’s head appeared. She was saying something, but Tarli was feeling like he was high on some kind of drug. He then started coughing out a black snoot from his lungs, losing his breath with each hack.

Then unexpected pain filled his senses, dragging him out of his nightmares. He shook his head and looked at Softy who was massaging her hoof, looking troubled.

“All good?” she asked loudly as the vehicle was dangerously close. Tarli cleared out his lungs from the remains of the black liquid and nodded.

He peeked once again to examine the tank, but as his eyes met the street again, he pulled back. The amphibious tank was no more than a few meters away. It was a long, tall, box-like armoured transporter, with sloped front armour, and mounted with some kind of long bumper-like equipment. Befitting its construction, it possessed a ramp to improve its displacement and stabilize it while in the water. On top of this rolling box, the disproportionately small turret had been placed. Based on the barrel’s width and length, Tarli could assume it was a 20mm autocannon, supported by a small, coaxial machine gun next to it. On the turret’s rear, a small box was barely visible, probably for additional infantry equipment.

Tarli hugged the wall at the last second as the steel box slowly passed them by. It appeared that the crew didn’t see the bright-brown wolf-pony looking at them. It looked to be about to pass the bar until it suddenly stopped. Where it had stopped though was only being partly obstructed by the wall they were using to hide, allowing Tarli to see its rear. Nobody was peeking out of hatches, so he was beginning to think now was a good time to sneak around their new guest.

Suddenly, the small turret turned towards one of the upper sections of a building in front of the bar. To Tarli, both the size and movement of the gun made it seem more cute than threatening.

Several loud bangs then reverberated across the street, making Softy squeak in terror. Three 20mm bullets ripped off a section of damaged wall from the building. The rubble from this hit the pathway below the building, breaking the tiles with loud concrete agony. Tarli involuntarily looked at Softy. She was sitting behind him and curled up like a cat. Her head was being covered by her shaking front hooves.

I guess, she’s not familiar with this said Karit stated apathetically. Tarli looked at the tank again, finding its turret spinning around as it searched for anything to shoot at. Apparently, the gunner found nothing worth his cannon shells and the metal box started to slowly roll again, turning behind another building. Shortly after, the noises from the engine started to gradually fade out. When the silence came back, Tarli checked Softy, who was still lying on the floor, shaking, and covering her head.

“Hey, are you alright?” he asked considerately, reaching for Softy’s mane. She did not respond, so Tarli grabbed her cheeks and slowly raised her nose. Her eyes were still closed.

“Hey, look at me. It’s all good. It’s gone,” he was trying to comfort her and it seemed to work as her breathing was slowing down. She opened her eyes and gave him a scarred look, which was slowly filling up with relief.

“I-I’m s-sorry” she murmured but Tarli just patted her with a smile.

“First time hearing a gunshot?” he asked, checking the street.

“First time hearing cannons shot from that close. It was so loud and unexpected,” she answered more confidently. “Scared the hell out of me” he added quieter as she was ashamed of her panic attack.

“It’s fine. You’ve reminded me of my first contact with a high-calibre gun. It went off next to me, unexpectedly.” Tarli smiled, looking at Softy, who seemed to feel much better as her legs had stopped shaking.

“Had a panic attack as well?” She asked with curiosity. Tarli smiled nervously while scratching his neck.

“Well… I... had to change my uniform” he answered awkwardly causing Softy to start giggling. “We should go. It looks clear.” Tarli then gently jumped through the window.

Author's Note

Here is Softy ^^

3. "Make a difference"

“Tarli,” a voice quietly breathed from behind the wolf-pony as the two of them crossed from burning building to burning building through the large holes that had been blown into their walls, trying their best to avoid going onto any open streets, trying to decrease the chances of coming across one of the innumerable burnt corpses that littered them. However, it was hard to avoid the sting of smoke in the air.

“Tarli!” Softy said again, this time louder as the light brown wolf-pony hadn’t given any indication that he had heard her as he moved beneath yet another hole in a wall. This time though, he turned his head without stopping.

“Sup,” he answered, looking at the pegasus slowly catching up to him.

“What happened?” She asked, and Tarli gave her a confused stare. Seeing his perplexed look, she pointed her wing in the direction they’d come from. “Ya know, back in the bar, where we saw that tank.”

“That wasn’t a tank. It’s more a ‘swimming personal carrier’ than anything else,” he corrected her, but Softy rolled her eyes. “Also, I don’t wanna talk about it,” he added after a short break. This only caused Softy to once again roll her eyes, this time with an exasperated frown.

“Come on. You scared the hell out of me back there. I thought that swimming thing was gonna blast you at any moment,” she explained worriedly. Indeed, losing a new friend just because they’d frozen up in front of a big, metal, shooting box wasn’t the most pleasant event that could happen.

Tarli took a deep breath and gave the pegasus a quick look while moving over a pile of rubble. “Shellshock,” he answered simply, his voice lacking any semblance of emotion, but Softy was far from being satisfied with the reply.

“Well, I’m familiar with that. What did you see?” she said with a tone suggesting that his answer was far from conciliatory.

Tarli sighed once again before sitting down. He looked around, seeing that they were in a thin, dark side street with both sides blockaded by vast piles of rubbish that, at a glance, could almost be mistaken for walls. Softy sat down in front of him and waited for his response.

“Our beaches were mostly staffed by garrison soldiers initially, but HQ wanted even more firepower in the trenches. They wanted to send down a hail of bullets before the enemy could reach the beachhead, so infantry divisions were assigned to reinforce the garrisons. One of those was mine,” he said, giving himself time to gather thoughts before proceeding. Softy slowly approached him, staring straight into his eyes. She had been attempting to comfort him by showing she was listening, but this only served to make him feel a bit uneasy.

“What happened next?” She asked, trying to break his clear signs of inner-conflict.

“Well, the first wave came with a devastating artillery barrage, but we managed to remain resolute. Our bunkers were tough, and the corridors between them were deep underground, so it wasn’t that bad. We’d pinned down the first wave of attacks on the beach and were confident that the battle had already been won... But then, on the ocean, a great wall of white smoke began to rise. High calibre bullets started to fly right over our heads, slowly but steadily whittling us down. One by one, whoever dared to raise their head had it quickly blown off. When I looked at the water, I saw hundreds of silhouettes slowly coming out from behind a veil of smoke, destroying our fortifications with their cannons as they went. We weren’t prepared for that many,” Tarli paused, fighting with his memories as he tried to put forth the words.

“We gave them everything we had, but it just wasn’t enough. Our AT guns kept sending shells downrange, destroying countless boxes, but they just did not stop, no matter how many bullets we threw at them. When they finally reached the beach, we had our artillery fire on them. With amphibious tanks, you need a few seconds to switch from the propeller to the tracks, but these ones were different. They didn’t stop for a second and moved incredibly fast, slipping out of the kill zone, so once our artillery began their barrage, they were already just in front of our trenches, rolling through them as if there was nothing there….” Tarli sighed, remembering the desperate attempts to at least slow down the assault. Softy was sitting in front of him, with wide eyes. She didn’t know that she’d been speaking with a beach defence veteran, or rather, survivor. Beneath the remorse and sorrow, Tarli noticed a sort of childish curiosity in her eyes.

“When that tank pulled out of the smoke, it reminded me of when I saw wolves throwing themselves under tracks with cooked grenades in a desperate attempt to rip them off. Some of us tried to plant explosives between their wheels, but the advancing infantry had them covered too well. A handful of wolves managed to reach some of those amphibious tanks and plant explosives, though most of them died pointless deaths because apparently, the transmission on those things is hidden deep behind a drive wheel. Hence, wolves had to practically climb into the tracks to plant an explosive where it would actually do damage. In most cases, this ended with decapitations or smashed fingers as the vehicle changed direction.” Tarli went silent after finishing that, his face and posture a hollow facsimile of the wolf-pony from earlier.

“Fuck’s sake” Softy swore, unable to conceave of any other way to respond. It was at this moment that Tarli realized that this was the first time he’d heard her swear.

“Language,” he said with a bitter grin, trying to expel the dismal atmosphere that he’d brought about. She smiled a bit, but it was more of an instinctive reflex than a true sign of joy.

“I-I’m sorry for bringing this up” she whispered with clear guilt in her voice.

“Nah, it’s fine,” he said, giving her a gentle hug. “Everybody needs to talk about their demons sometimes. It makes the fight a bit easier.” He looked into Softy’s eyes after finishing, which he regretted almost immediately as his mind was once again hit with a disquieting feeling.

“Come on, I know those memories are weighing on you,” she backed off a bit, seeing through Tarli's lie. “I just don’t know how to help you”, her tone was filled with what could only be described as a sense of helplessness. Seeing Softy like this made Tarli immediately regret giving in to her curiosity and not just keeping his mouth shut.

If I’d have just took half a second to think, I would’ve realised opening my mouth was going to end like this. The thought popped into his brain not long after the pit of regret opened up in his gut, leading to several seconds of him swearing to himself.

That’s a dumb idea, Karit unexpectedly said.

Karit’s sudden arrival, as there really wasn’t another way to describe it, sent Tarli’s mind reeling, and the wolf-pony had to suppress his face’s desire to move as it instinctively tried to make his confusion apparent. With how Softy had been acting towards him so far, suddenly allowing his eyes to widen would either cause her to become more worried about his mental state or scare her near to death from thinking he just noticed another threat.

What do you mean? he asked confused, still looking at Softy, who had started to kick a small rock.

Mate, what’s better, making a friend sad or dealing with this shit by yourself? Karit was trying to sound disinterested, however, Tarli could sense a small tinge of anger in its tone.

I guess neither option is ideal, Tarli answered feeling even worse than before.

Indeed, but it’s good to share what’s eating at you with others. At least then you won’t be all by yourself. Karit was still playing ‘neutral’ with him, making Tarli wonder if he really cared about all of this mess.

Alright, so how can I fix this now? Tarli found himself staring at the closest wall and saw out of the corner of his eye that Softy had started to say something, but her voice wasn’t reaching his ears.

Improvise… Karit answered before going completely silent, his tone clearly grim.

“Listen…” Tarli started, catching Softy’s attention and causing her to go quiet. As her blue eyes landed on him, that same discomforting feeling swallowed Tarli’s insides.

“You are helping me. Ya know, talking about the shit inside my head makes it easier for me to deal with it,” he said after a deep sigh.

“Are you sure?” She asked, looking not too convinced.

“Well, no, but there’s nothing more either of us can do,” he said, standing up and continuing the walk Softy had interrupted. As he reached a wall, he turned his head and saw that the pegasus still hadn’t moved.

“I just don’t want you to die because of shellshock, ya know. Going numb right in front of a machine gun or something wouldn’t end well for either of us,” she whispered, slowly following Tarli as they walked into an empty room coated in blankets of ash.

“I can’t promise, but I’ll do my best,” he said, making an effort to sound like he could easily conquer his demons. But if he was being honest with himself, those scars on his soul stretched and ripped ever so slightly with each second his mind registered their existence. The amount of them that had formed in just the time he had been around Softy was overwhelming, each constantly threatening to finally rupture and rend his mind till he was naught but a dead-eyed automaton. But despite this, he needed to stay strong, he’d promised himself that he’d protect Softy from this Scarha, and he couldn’t do that if he gave into the pain and the sorrow.

Softy nodded as they both disappeared into a section of the building shrouded in shadow. Their journey through the building didn’t last very long, however, as a few minutes later, Softy moved in front of Tarli and stopped him with her hoof.

“What now?” The tone he’d used was a bit too harsh. With everything that had just happened, he’d expected that Softy was going to start up another uncomfortable conversation, and he was just about out of patience when it came to that.

“We’re here,” She answered, ignoring his tone, causing Tarli to look around. The burnt and abandoned living room wasn’t the hideout he’d been expecting at all, but he wasn’t in a position to complain.

Softy noticed his confusion and quickly approached a wall to their left. She placed her hoof inside a small hole and a loud click echoed across the quiet room. The wall began to move after that, exposing a steel double-door hidden behind it.

“That’s unexpected,” Tarli whispered, getting closer and touching a big wheel on the metal hatch. Softy then pulled a lever that lay next to said wheel, causing it to spin and release a harsh, grinding screech. Both doors soon began to languidly swing inward as it creaked in agony.

“It’s a survival bunker. Before the war, Lunarium had built many of them in order to give civilians a chance to survive a warzone, stocking them with food, medications, uniforms, and even weapons for self-defence. Each of them can shelter at least a hundred citizens, but the architects had predicted an overpopulation scenario, so they prepared the so-called “Max+ space”,” she explained as the doors took their time at providing an egress.

Tarli looked at the pegasus in amazement at the knowledge she had, but then a random thought hit him.

“How is it that you wound up with a whole shelter just to yourself?” he asked, causing Softy’s expression to fall like a stone into a gaping abyss, and her eyes to turn towards the wooden floor.

“It was never meant to be finished, so you’re not going to find it on any maps or city plans,” she said, trying not to look impatient as the door had yet to open to any meaningful degree.

“Any idea why?” He asked, approaching the doors and giving them a kick, but it failed to help, as one would expect.

“Documents I found inside say that due to its type being outdated, it didn’t meet the requirements for a public shelter. Seems like somebody used old plans to build it and ended up abandoning it.”

“Well, if I’d have been a supervisor, after seeing these doors, this shit would’ve been scrapped,” Tarli hissed while kicking the metal once again, to the same effect as before.

“I think its mechanism wasn’t finished. Good thing it’s still working though,” she said, watching as Tarli began using his entire body to try and push open the doors.

“Anyway, how did you find it?” Tarli looked at the pegasus with unsuppressed curiosity.

“I was hiding in this room not too long ago when a patrol appeared on the street out of nowhere. They passed me, but I was still too scared to move, so I was lying here for almost an hour. After a while, I noticed this hole on the wall that looked really suspicious, so I put my hoof there, felt a small lever, pulled it, and suddenly the wall opened up.” As Softy finished her explanation, the doors had finally opened wide enough to allow them to enter and see what was inside.

Tarli quickly peeked through the crack between the doors and noticed a typical staircase leading underground. The entry wasn’t very big, as it was only about the size of a typical concrete corridor. Softy moved in, nodding to Tarli to follow her. As soon as they passed the entrance, the doors quickly closed behind them, scaring Tarli.

“At least we know the closing mechanism works,” he said, following the pegasus down the poorly lit stairs, the only light being the anemic glow from aged and dust-coated lamps placed across one of the walls. From the look of things, Tarli had to guess that the generator wasn’t working, or at the very least wasn’t working at full power. Is the shelter on power-saving measures?

Not too long after, the two reached the bottom of the staircase, and with it, another double-door.

“If this door’s gonna take its time too, I’m just gonna find some satchel charges and blow this shit up,” he said after sighing heavily, looking at Softy as she placed her hoof on a small panel next to them.

“Don’t worry, this one is fine.” She smiled at him, and Tarli noticed that he wasn’t alone when it came to his opinion on this bunker’s doors. A loud click echoed through a small corridor as the doors rapidly opened, disappearing into the walls and revealing what they were meant to protect.

The corridor they entered was covered in light grey panels and had a recessed utility light in the ceiling that spanned its entire length. But besides those and the three doors on either side, the shelter seemed to be completely empty. According to the small metal panels above them, the three doors to their left all lead to sleeping areas, while the kitchen, bathroom and storage area were on the right. As both he and Softy moved down the hall towards the last sleeping room, Tarli noticed a small panel on the wall at the end of the hall, but no doors near it.

When they opened the large sleeping area door, this one also sliding into the wall, Tarli was met with an enormous room that almost looked like the barracks he was familiar with. In front of him, divided by what looked to be a structural wall, were two identical sleeping arrangements, with military bunk beds placed regularly along the long walls on the left of each ‘room’, and across from them, a line of desks. When he turned his head to the right, he could see what looked like another structural wall with a gap in the middle leading to what could only be a third iteration of the bed and desk area in front of him.

“Cozy,” he whispered, noticing just how vast the room was due to its spartan furnishings.

Softy moved to the last bed in the line, the one in the far corner of the room, and sat down. Seeing how small she looked in a room this deserted, Tarli realized that Softy more than likely felt isolated, especially given his earlier outburst.

“Is that all rooms in this shelter?” He asked, peeking out into the corridor again.

“Well no,” she said, quickly joining him and pointing at the small panel he’d noticed earlier.

“What’s that?” he asked, approaching the small device. It was a paw-reader, which wasn’t exactly common in shelters like this.

“I think it allows citizens to access more important rooms deeper in a complex,” she answered, putting her hoof on a reader, which took its time examining her hoof.

“But it keeps denying me, for some reason. I’m a Lunar citizen, it should accept me.” The display flashed red followed by a loud beep and synthetic voice stating, “ACCESS DENIED.”

“Maybe you need to be a soldier?” Tarli had an idea and approached a device, putting his paw on it. Just like it had with Softy, the reader took several seconds to examine the newcomer’s paw print.

“ACCESS DENIED,” the voice said after a while. Tarli pulled his paw away, waited a few seconds till the device reset itself, and tried again.

“ACCESS DENIED,” the voice echoed again, making Tarli quite pissed.

“ACCESS DENIED,” once he heard the third refusal, he instantly punched the device, causing it to hoot and make some other strange noises before shutting down.

“Now it’s not gonna work,” Softy snorted as Tarli punched the device again, prompting the display to turn back on.

This time, however, when he put his paw on a reader, the voice almost immediately responded with an “ACCESS GRANTED,” before a part of the wall quickly moved, revealing another corridor behind it.

“See? Sometimes you just need to punch things to fix them,” he said with a satisfied smile.

Softy just rolled her eyes, giving him a stare that said, You wolves will just punch everything.

After their short exchange, the two of them made their way into the new corridor, finding that it contained four more rooms, two on either side, labelled as an armoury, a Command centre, and two marked as barracks. They instantly made their way to the armoury, hoping to find anything useful. Once they stepped in, they spotted three lines of uniform holders and empty weapon racks placed in rows across the room.

“Well, at least we now have some clean uniforms,” said Tarli, a little upset as he looked around.

“It’s gonna be helpful. I think I’m ‘ma try to find me a vest or something,” Softy said, disappearing between the wardrobes. Tarli moved to the other side, hoping to find a new set that would properly fit his rather small body. He sighed in relief upon finding a suitable combat medic uniform with a new vest.

“What the hell!” Softy yelled out in terror when the wolf-pony stripped off his ballistic protection and unceremoniously dropped it to the ground, causing a sudden and loud noise to reverberate off the walls. Her reaction made Tarli laugh, but she was staring at the armor lying on the ground. After the chopper accident, what was left of his vest was now just a mangled and deformed piece of dead weight he’d had strapped to his torso.

“Is that a bulletproof vest or a damn amour plate?!” She yelled, her eyes clearly showing her confusion as she stared at it.

“Hard-type protection. It mostly prevents bullet penetration, but you feel every hit,” he answered neutrally, taking a fresh uniform from the locker. “I’m ‘ma change out of this crap,” he said, looking at the deplorable state of his dirty clothes. He noticed Softy’s smirk as she leaned into a shelf containing medic uniforms

“You could use a shower as well,” Tarli looked at his paws and tail, realizing that his fur had almost completely turned black.

“Yeah, right,” he answered, heading towards the doors but stopping halfway.

“You have water here, right?” He asked, looking at Softy who was busy looking for the correct size.

“Yup, inner rainwater collector. Quite efficient to be honest” Tarli nodded and headed out. When the doors closed behind him, he moved towards the bathroom, but suddenly, when his eyes found their way onto the Command Center label, he couldn’t help but start to wonder what was inside.

I guess it would be a good idea to lully check this place out before taking care of hygiene, he thought, putting the perfectly folded uniform he was holding on the ground.

Well, you’re right. Who knows if there’s a monster or something, Karit said cheerfully as Tarli approached the metal doors. He noticed a small touchpad, similar to the previous one, causing him to sigh deeply.

“Not again,” he said, putting his paw on the console, but this time, the small display showed ACCESS GRANTED almost immediately.

“Thank goddness,” he whispered with relief, as the metal cover slid open, revealing a dark room. Tarli walked inside and began blindly pawing at the wall next to the door in an attempt to find a light switch.

After only a few seconds, his fingers brushed against something on the wall, causing a loud click to echo throughout the empty room as the lights suddenly came on. Looking around, Tarli saw that the Command Center was decently spacious, at least in regards to the floor space reserved for walking around. The walls to his left and right each had five computer and radio stations packed against them, while the far wall housed two more coms desks and what appeared to be a vid-screen. However, the room primarily seemed to have been built around the huge, table-like device at its centre, given that the last wall possessed nothing other than two pew-like benches, one in front of the other, facing the strange table. Tarli started walking around and trying to turn on anything to see if at least one thing was still operable. Unfortunately, every device remained dormant, either fried or missing parts based on Tarli’s examination. If he had to guess, he would have to say somebody had gotten here before them in order to prevent the enemy from gaining any vital information and decided to just break everything rather than retrieve it all. Tarli stood next to one of the huge radio transmitters full of clocks and cables and looked over the dozens of nobs, switches, and displays. He removed a small metal plate from it and peeked inside, but the radio appeared to be nothing more than an empty shell.

Tarli sighed as he wandered to the table, curious about what it was. After a quick examination of the green-tinted screen that comprised the top of it, he deduced that it had to be some kind of interactive hologram display. He stared at the buttons placed around the frame and noticed that one of them was emitting a weak green light.

That means, it still has power, Karit said emotionlessly.

Tarli began examining the table even closer, but couldn’t find any switch to restore it to life.

“Do you know how to turn it on?” He asked his non-existing friend, slowly crawling beneath the hologram table in order to see if there was anything there.

I dunno, maybe smack it like the paw-reader, Karit said half-serious, half wittily, making the wolf-pony frown.

“What are you doing there?” The sudden arrival of Softy’s quiet voice from right behind him scared the wolf-pony, causing him to hit the table with his head as his body shot up.

“Cunt!” he screamed, falling down on his broken leg, causing another wave of pain to wash over and paralyze his entire body. The pain was so great that it forced him to close eyes and collapse to the concrete floor. “Son of…!” he yelled, locking his left paw onto the second source of pain, the back of his head.

“What the hell?” Softy’s blurred face appeared in front of him as soon as he opened his eyes. She looked worried, yet also quite amused.

“Are you crazy? Sneaking up on a wolf like that.” he hissed as his vision started to clear. Softy folded her ears back and looked away with an apologetic expression.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” she murmured, her expression one of so much shame that it caused Tarli to feel bad about the anger he’d just directed towards her.

“It’s fine. Just next time, please don’t stand right behind me when I’m under a table” he forced himself to smile warmly, but it quickly turned into a painful grimace.

“Alright, so what’s this?” She pointed at the mysterious device in curiosity.

“I think it’s some kind of interactive map,” Tarli replied, going underneath it once again.

“Do you know how to turn it on?” She asked, watching her friend as he slowly crawled back under it.

“I think so. I mean, it’s receiving power, so all I need to do is redirect that energy into the main display. In order to do that, I need to find its powerbox or crystal chamber so I’ll be able to switch over the dust relay,” he explained like a professional, not sure how he knew that though. Seems like he hadn’t lost all of his memories after all.

“Dust relay?” She asked without an idea of what it meant. Tarli sighed quietly before answering.

“Lunarium uses Night Crystals as small reactors. In a controlled environment, those crystals release their dust, functioning similarly to electricity. You know. It’s like a nuclear reactor, but with less power and more stability,” Softy nodded, having no idea at all what the hell he was talking about. She wasn’t a technician, so it was quite an alien technology for her.

Meanwhile, Tarli was crawling past two massive metal legs and beginning to look around, trying to find one of the two things he’d just talked about. However, despite the lights in a room being on, the underside of the table was still drowned in darkness.

Suddenly, he spotted a small box with a tiny hole emanating a weak, shining blue light.

“Got ya,” he whispered, moving closer. As he reached a crystal chamber, he noticed some switches and tiny levers attached to it. He narrowed his eyes and put his nose as close as possible in order to read the small words above them.

“Navigation, com relay, dust transmitter, ignition…” he was reading slowly trying to find something responsible for the main display.

“Got ya,” he said, seeing a small label with “Interaction map display”. He flipped the switch, but nothing happened. Then, he noticed a small lever on the power box’s side saying Dust chamber main conduit: Close, so he grabbed it with his two claws.

A sudden explosion of lights and noises scared Tarli and caused him to jump and hit the table again.

“Cunt!” He yelled, massaging his head and struggling to crawl back out.

“First off, stop swearing or I’ll punch your face again.” Tarli saw Softy’s leg appear in front of him as he was almost out. “Second off, I have no idea what you‘ve done, but it worked,” she added as Tarli pulled himself out from underneath the table and stood up. When he took a look at the table, the whole top was shining green.

“I guess it’s ready to go,” he said, pressing a red button nearby. The table answered with a huge bar suddenly appearing and beginning to hang in the air above the table while slowly filling up.

Engaging Central Command Assistant appeared over it as it began to rotate horizontally like a holographic commercial. Tarli and Softy had been standing in silence, waiting for what was gonna happen next, but the loading bar stopped in the middle. Suddenly, the whole display turned red and a new message appeared.

ERROR
Failed to load Central Command Assistant…
Rebooting the system…
…
…
Reboot engaged…
Estimated time: 40 minutes

“Are you nuts? 40 minutes?” Tarli hissed and prepared himself to hit the table, but stopped in mid-air as one more message appeared.

Please do not hit the device.

“Cunt,” Tarli hissed, causing Softy to look at him sternly. Tarli swallowed loudly and prepared for an incoming punch, but one never came.

“Well, since we have 40 minutes until this thing decides to cooperate, why don’t we take care of your leg before it gets worse?” she said, pointing at him with a look suggesting he just concede.

“Fine, fine. I‘ll take a shower, change clothes, and then I’ll let you do your thing,” He sighed helplessly before beginning to move towards the doors.

“Great! Meanwhile, I’ll prepare the splints and painkillers,” she replied cheerfully, smiling suspiciously wide.

_________________________

Tarli moved into a bathroom. It was a spacious room with a line of showers to the right, separated from each other with short white walls so users could get at least some privacy. To the left, he spotted a mirror spanning the length of the wall with sinks placed below it. He sighed, wondering how hard it was going to be to wash himself standing on two legs as he needed to hold a nozzle somehow. Then he noticed a strange-looking tube at the end of the line of showers.

I guess it’s a shower for anyone who’s disabled, Karit said, causing Tarli to react with a smile. If that’s true, then getting clean just became a whole lot easier. He thought, immediately approaching it.

“I’m kinda disabled right now,” he whispered, placing his fresh uniform on a sink nearby. When he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror, he freaked out as if he was seeing somebody else staring back at him.

Apart from his fur being covered by a thick layer of soot, he noticed black trails coming down from his eyes, making it appear as if his tears were composed of tar. Similar trails were also visible around his mouth as well.

“How long have I been looking like this?” he asked himself, taking a closer look.

I dunno. It had to be when you were shellshocked back in the bar, Karit answered, sounding both worried and unsure.

“Have any idea what this means?” Tarli asked, trying to wipe away the trails, but only managing to remove some soot.

I can only guess, and you ain’t gonna like it, the voice’s reply was followed by a deep sigh.

“Hit me. It can’t be that bad” The wolf-pony answered with fake cheerfulness, trying to mask the terror in his mind.

You know. There is a legend in Lunarium. It goes more or less like this: Those who sinned will have to make the difference in order to touch the moonlight.

“The fuck does that mean?” Tarli shot out confused, trying to take off his old uniform.

It means, if you’ve fucked up during your life, you’re gonna need to pay after your death.... You can tell who one is from their grey eyes and black trails. The same as the ones you have. This answer froze Tarli in place as he tried to process this information.

“Wait, so am I dead?” His voice began to break as he was slowly realizing what Karit said.

Well, not quite. I mean, you’re still here. Walking, breathing, but you don’t have a soul anymore. At least that’s what I think. What visions did you have when shellshock got ya and during your talk with Softy next to the burnt wolf?

“Well…,” Tarli paused for a second, trying to remember those pictures. “Dead wolves, wolves dying in my paws, darkness attacking me, a fading Lunar symbol…” he said uncomfortably, as he looked nervously at his reflection again.

Well, that would make sense. And you’re suffering from memory loss as well… hmm…, Karit fell into an ocean of his thoughts, leaving Tarli alone. The wolf-pony waited awhile before saying loudly and impatiently, “Are you still there? Tell me more! What does it mean? What the fuck is going on?”

I told ya, you need to pay for the things you’ve fucked up, Karit said with a neutral tone.

“How am I supposed to know what the hell I’ve screwed up if I can’t remember anything?” Tarli almost yelled, but in the last second, lowered his voice. He didn’t want Softy to hear his conversation at all.

That’s the hard part. You need to regain your memories and find out. Otherwise, you’ll stay like this for a month, and in the end, turn into a black mist. The same one that attacked you in your dream.

“Fucking great. More crazy shit to deal with” Tarli hit a sink furiously, cutting his skin a bit on a small unevenness on the ceramic surface. He looked at the wound and froze. He wasn’t bleeding, but a small mist began to pour out of it like smoke.

Yeah, I’m right. You are one of them. Congratulations, you’ve officially become a “Wanderer”, said Karit with a tone filled with sadness and certainty.

Tarli had no idea what he was supposed to do now, nor where to go, but he knew for sure that he had to do something. It wasn’t exactly a good thing to turn into mist so it was something he’d rather avoid.

“Make the difference,” Tarli murmured as those words echoed in his mind like a jammed record.

Tarli moved into a shower tube, hoping that the hot water would wash away his thoughts and the soot on his body. The device was wide enough to move around freely inside and with a floor that was one big grille to let the water out without flooding the whole bathroom. As he looked around, he found multiple holes surrounding him as well as a small red button on a nearby wall.

After wasting some time on trying to figure out how it worked, he pressed the button

The loud beep echoed throughout the bathroom, and before Tarli could figure out what it meant, his fur was being sprayed by gentle streams of water, soaking it almost instantly. The holes started to spin around - slowly at the beginning, but gaining speed over time, making Tarli feel as if he was inside of some kind of mixer or car wash.

As the water was getting deeper into his fur, he found himself slowly melting from how relaxing this was. He was right. The shower did really wash away his thoughts, but not for long.

I see you already know, the harsh, emotionless voice caught Tarli off-guard as he was leaving the shower-tube, causing him to trip.

“Oh come on, not you again,” he said, regaining his balance and looking at the mirror. The black marks on his face were even more visible than before now that there wasn’t a layer of soot allowing them to blend in.

“What do you want from me?” Tarli sighed tiredly and with a hint of resignation as he tried to get dressed.

Redemption, the Voice intoned with an even deeper voice, making Tarli feel like somebody was grinding his mind.

“What do you mean? What’s the reason for all of this?” The wolf-pony felt like he had been brought back to life just to entertain this unknown being sitting inside his head.

“Talk to me! What have I done!” Tarli yelled as the voice hadn’t reacted for quite a long time, but it didn’t work either. Tarli sighed deeply and moved towards the doors, carrying the new bulletproof vest in his mouth, hoping to ask for Softy to help him with it.

You will see… soon, The voice said at last, Tarli tried to reply, but he was already out of the bathroom, and Softy had appeared from out of the corner.

“Alright, I’ve pre…,” she broke off as her eyes met Tarli’s silhouette. Her look of confusion was met with one of questioning from Tarli.

“What happened?” He asked finally, wondering if the black marks on his face were the reason for the sudden stop. What if she knows what they mean? Did I scare her?

“N-nothing,” she said, clearing her throat, trying to regain her professional tone.

“I've prepared the splint and some painkillers,” she shook her head in the sleeping area’s direction, avoiding looking at the wolf pony, tormenting Tarli with the implications.

Tarli nodded and moved towards the bedroom, followed by Softy, who was staring at the ground, making him even more stressed about his marks. Once he reached the destination, he quickly noticed a professional splint lying next to the closest bed, as well as a small wheeled carrier with some medications on it. He moved onto the bed and laid down to wait for Softy to play her part.

“I’ll give you some morphine,” she said with a fully professional tone. Tarli’s eyes went wide though as his brain processed what she’d said. He didn’t know if it was a good choice due to the fact he is basically a dead-wolf walking, but on the other hand, telling her the truth wasn’t an option either.

“Is it necessary?” He asked, trying to find any way to change the medication choice, but she was already getting closer with an auto-injector.

“Well… yeah. Otherwise, it’s gonna hurt. A lot,” Tarli felt a needle slowly moving through his bright-brown fur.

“No other painkillers?” He tried to appeal, but Softy’s serious look caused him to regret speaking up again. The sting caused him to hiss, but the following wave of relief eliminated the pain in his leg. His mind started to melt, similar to how it did after he’d smoked several strong cigarettes before the world began to spin like crazy.

“Wait, it’s not supposed to work that fast.” Softy’s voice sounded as if it was coming from far away. She noticed that her patient’s mind is drifting away a bit too much, but it was too late. Tarli wanted to say something, but his words turned into nonsense babble as the back of his head slowly drowned into the pillow.

“Tarli! Wake up!” Her scream seemed to be muffled by a thick wall of painkiller. The last thing he saw was a blurred pegasus picking up an autoinjector of adenosine before darkness consumed his vision.

4. Scibbi

Once Tarli finally woke up, the first thing he was able to see was a blurry field of grey that encompassed his entire field of view. It took him a moment to realize that he was looking at the ceiling, which was slowly stopping its spinning. He tried to move his head, but those muscles just didn’t seem like they were either willing or able to respond. The same was also true for his mouth, as his attempt to call to Softy turned into slurred babbles. He took his time to slowly regain control over his body, wondering if the morphine should have put him to sleep or not. Those autoinjectors have the most optimal dose, fitting almost every creature that wasn’t a werewolf, so his body’s reaction was kinda odd.

Maybe it’s because of this Wanderer thing? He asked himself, counting a bit on Karit replying, but it seemed he wasn’t there. I guess he’s busy or something.

He forced his head to slowly turn left and quickly noticed a yellow shape lying next to him. It was Softy. She was sitting on the floor, leaning her head on the bed. She had clearly been waiting for him to wake up and had fallen asleep at some point. He found her nose to be really cute in this position, causing him to fight with a nigh irresistible desire to touch it, but a quick head-shake and blaming the painkiller in his veins for such a thought managed to extinguish his desires.

Tarli got up slowly in order to check his leg and discovered that several leather straps were now binding a pair of thin and yet durable metal bars to his limb. Between them, Softy had applied a thin layer of plaster, reinforcing the whole structure, which was lighter and more comfortable than a bunch of bandages. It was a professional medical splint. Although it wasn’t the top-tier medical brace he knew could be done, considering what she probably had to work with and the fact it was far-and-away superior to the improvised crap he’d had before, he had no complaints. Not too long after he finished his evaluation on his treated leg, he noticed a bandage wrapped around his front paw, causing him to snort.

Tarli tried to get up off the bed, but the morphine in his blood was making that task unexpectedly hard. He did his best to stand up without waking up Softy, but failed spectacularly. A loud bang echoed across the empty room as he hit a metal bed’s frame with his splint, causing his heart to almost freeze.

Softy slowly opened her eyes and looked at him with a half-awake look.

“You’re alive!” She quickly jumped up towards the incapacitated wolfpony, helping him to sit down on the edge.

“How long was I out?” Tarli asked, trying to recover his senses while holding his head. He felt as if he’d partied too hard last night and forgot to drink even a little water.

“Few hours. You fell asleep so quickly. I had no idea that morphine would knock you down like that. I’m so sorry,” Softy blurted out the words, almost giving Tarli a headache. He patted her mane and smiled with a warm and yet hard stare.

“Chill out. At least I had a nap,” He said, looking at the opposite wall, to check if his vision had cleared out a bit. It was still blurry, but getting better.

“Your pulse was so low for most of the time, even though I gave you adenosine and adrenaline. Your body just refused to wake up. Your heart rate was stable though. I tried to monitor it the entire time, but…” Softy checked Tarli’s pulse by putting her hoof on his neck, which made him a bit uncomfortable. “I think I fell asleep. I don’t even know when. I-I’m so sorry. If something would’ve happened…”

Tarli muffed her words by closing her mouth with his paw before whispering, “Shhh... It’s alright. As you can see, I’m still here. I’m not that easy to take down”.

Softy nodded slightly, seeming to have calmed down a bit. Tarli sighed before quietly gasping as he remembered about the device in the central control room.

“How’s our computer?” He asked, pointing his paw to the wall in front of him.

“Well… I took a quick peek and it seemed to be ready to use, though It was demanding your paw print again, so I’ve left it alone,” she said as Tarli slowly got off the bed, fighting for his balance. Softy quickly moved to support him, preventing him from falling on his face.

“You should stay in bed and wait for…”

“No time for that,” Tarli interrupted Softy, slowly walking towards the doors.

The pegasus sighed, whispering Stubborn wolf, but her words fell on deaf ears, doing nothing to stop him from walking away. With no other choice, she followed.

________

“So, this is our AI,” Tarli said, walking into the central control room and noticing a holographic, bright-blue sphere levitating above the table. It seemed to be covered by some kind of cybernetic net that was moving across its surface.

“Well, yeah. I’m not gonna lie, it looks sick!” Softy tried to not sound too excited, but it was hard to stay calm. Especially when she had never seen anything like this before.

“Let’s see what we have here,” Tarli whispered as he put a paw on a small paw-print reader on a table. The sphere raised to the ceiling, increasing its size almost two times and illuminating the entire room in bright blue light.

“Central Command Assistant - loading completed.” The voice moved across the room before the blue sphere turned into a wolf’s head and began to stare at Tarli with its digital eyes.

“Welcome to shelter number 203. Assistant number 10221, nicknamed ‘Sarli’, is reporting for duty. How can I help you today?” It said, without moving its lips, though it was moving its head around, looking at a confused Tarli and shocked Softy.

“Alright, first off… can you give me details of what you are and what can you do?” Started Tarli, a bit unsure if the AI could understand him. The digital head stared at him and seemed to take a while to think about his words.

“I am a personal AI called ‘Sarli’. I am here to support the overseer during his tasks. If the shelter is fully operational, I can give proposals for action plans, rescue missions, overseeing the shelter, and inspecting the facility's devices in order to find any malfunctions. I also can pick up any stress calls in a radius of 10 km. I’m here to serve you as best as I can.” The head stayed still after finishing, waiting for Tarli’s response.

“I guess, it can be handy for figuring out where we are and what the hell is going on,” he said, looking at Softy, who was staring at the AI.

“Alright, Sarli. Do you know where we are and what’s the current sitrep for Isen?” Tarli said, pointing at the digital head in front of him. Sarli again took its time to process his words.

“You are currently in shelter number 203. Detailed localization: District: Moonshine Avenue, Saint Larki street number 9, about half an hour from the centre and twenty minutes from the nearest airport. Lunar forces are currently in a full retreat from Isen, but many units have been left behind, scattered across the city. According to the most recent intel I possess, the closest Lunar unit is the 203rd Assault Division and part of the 102nd Mechanized Division, with minor tank support from the 12th Heavy Tank battalion, stationed thirty kilometers from Isen’s suburbs.”

“203rd? That’s my unit!” Tarli jumped up, hearing that his formation was still operational. In seconds, he regained hope that he was not alone in this devastated city and that he would finally be able to meet back up with his teammates.

“Sarli? Could you contact them, please?” Said Softy, sounding like she didn’t want to irritate the AI.

“I’m sorry, I can’t. I detected a serious malfunction with the shelter's beacons. My readings tell me that they were destroyed during the artillery barrage on the first few days of the Lizards' invasion. You may need to find new ones and set a proper frequency in order to contact an HQ,” it answered, staring at the pegasus and causing her to slightly back off.

“Alright, where can we find them?!” Tarli shouted eagerly. Knowing that his unit was somewhere up there and how close he was to getting into contact with them, Tarli was ready to even bring an entire beacon here on his back if that’s what it took.

Calculating… The nearest radio beacon is located on Saint Larki Airport, which was turned into a temporary FOB during the invasion. However, Lizard bombing runs and artillery barrages have scorched and damaged a majority of the structures and the surrounding area, rendering continued occupation untenable. It appears though that the radio beacon did survive the fight. Most likely it is damaged and will require additional repairs, but this is the only possible intact receiver and transmitter in the immediate area based on my records.

“I thought the town hall had its own beacons in the case of the city being sieged?” Tarli managed to calm himself down and gather thoughts before continuing. “Sarli, tell me what’s the status of town hall’s defenders. Are they still holding up?”

“According to reports, they are completely cut off. They have no power, no ammunition, running low on supplies, and they are slowly being overrun by overwhelming forces. That information is a week old, so is thus considered outdated. The current situation is unlikely to have improved in the intervening time. It’s wise to stay away.”

Tarli expression dropped slightly. He knew that the town hall was what was helping to maintain morale among the forces around Isen. If they fell, Lunarium will be forced to withdraw and focus on the next big city of Narhi, which was just too far away, and most likely already been seized by Lizard forces. For all intents and purposes, Tarli and Softy are pretty much doomed. However, if Lunarium was still keeping their forces around Isen, it meant that either town hall was still holding or they were preparing to leave soon. Either way, they needed to contact them as soon as possible in order to survive another day.

“What are you thinking about?” Softy poked Tarli’s side, grabbing his attention. He looked at her and realized that she had no idea how deep of shit they were, or she was just being deliberately ignorant.

“I’m thinking…” Tarli started, going silent for a second, trying to get his thoughts back on tracks. “I think that the town hall is still holding. If we can reach the radio beacon on the airport and then meet the defenders, they could use this AI to contact the main forces near Isen and get the hell out of here.” It was the best opportunity to help the defenders and join them during the extraction, however, it had some holes, which Softy spotted.

“What if they’ve been overrun? If we come across any Lizards or if they find this shelter, they could use this AI to sabotage our comms.” Tarli was a bit surprised at hearing an ex-civil doctor list off the faults in his plan so quickly. Seemed like she wasn’t that naive regarding this whole situation as he’d thought. Tarli made a mind-note, Do not underestimate this cutie.

“I guess, we have no other options than getting this radio going and seeing if they’re still there. Worst-case scenario, we’re welcomed by rotten corpses and bullets,” he murmured, wishing that he was wrong. He wanted to believe that the town hall had not fallen, because, without it, the hope of a whole Free Wolves clan would turn to ash. Though, when he remembered the current state of Isen, he started to wonder if it wasn’t already too late.

“Let’s get ready. It’s gonna take some time to get to the airport,” he said finally, after a long break. Softy instantly pointed at his leg with a begrudging frown.

“What?” Tarli asked confused, following her hoof, but suddenly realizing what she meant.

“Don’t think I’m going to let you go with a broken leg,” she said firmly, but Tarli decided to not give up this fight.

“And you think you can stop me?” He said with a challenging smirk, causing Softy to gasp.

“Yes! I will. You stay here till I can be sure you can walk properly. I’ll use force to make you stay here,” she said, getting closer to Tarli with a serious look.

“Do it, cutie,” Tarli giggled, causing Softy’s face to turn red. Apparently, she didn’t like to be called cutie, but he knew what was going to happen. Softy tried to slap his cheek, but Tarli leaned down. With his face no longer there to bring her hoof to a stop, Softy ended up continuing her swipe, throwing her weight off-centre and causing her to lose her balance. She fell forward, but the wolf-pony quickly caught her, pulling her nose close to his face. Now he wasn’t sure if her face was red from anger or a blush. What he was sure of though was that he didn’t feel comfortable having her eyes so close to him.

“See? I’m pretty good even with a broken leg,” he said, smiling maliciously, trying not to expose his feelings with a blush that began to slowly develop. Softy was slowly realizing what just happened.

“Okay, okay. You can go…,” she said, hiding her face behind her wing before Tarli gently pushed her back onto the floor. “...but try to keep up, fancy-smile,” she shouted, quickly exiting the room, leaving the wolf-pony alone with the AI, which was trying to analyze their behaviour.

Don’t play with fire, mate. Tarli heard Karit’s voice in his mind, making him roll his eyes.

“C’mon. Just a little bit of messing around won’t get anybody killed,” he answered, forgetting about the AI which was staring at him.

“Who are you talking to?” the digital head asked, scarring Tarli. He didn’t realise that this floating cyber wolf was so aware of its surroundings and could discern that there is nobody else in the room.

“Doesn’t matter, prepare the map and instructions for us, if you can,” he said, trying to sidetrack the computer, but it was also wiser than he expected.

“Roger that. Meanwhile, you can answer my question,” it answered, making Tarli wonder why this AI was acting so similar to a living being.

“Just forget about it.” He waved his paw and the computer went silent.

I guess it’s not just another dumb AI, Karit said, somehow catching Sarli’s attention.

“I detect an abnormal incoming telepathic message and anomaly in the wound on your paw. May I ask you to take a quick blood test?” It said, popping up a small pawn reader with a synergy attached to it, terrifying Tarli.

“No… later,” he said with a clear look of panic in his eyes, remembering about the map he asked for, and ran out of the room.

______________________________

Tarli rushed into the living quarters and closed the doors behind him. He rested his head on a cold metal wall, breathing heavily, and having no idea why he’d gotten exhausted so quickly.

Seems like this AI knows more than we expected, Karit said with a tone of disbelief.

“I guess yeah. I don’t want it to know what’s going on… not yet. It would tell Softy about my condition,” Tarli replied, imagining Softy’s reaction. He could see her turning away from him, fearing what he had become. She was his only ally so far, and losing her because of this Wander bullshit wasn’t an option.

So what are we gonna do? I don’t think it’s gonna give up that easy, Tarli could feel some kind of fear in Karit’s voice. Clearly, he wasn’t a fan of this scenario either.

“Let’s focus on the task for now. If it’s not gonna leave me alone, I’ll turn it off permanently,” Tarit decided, already planning how he was going to do it without acting suspicious.

Alright. We should check if Softy is ready. I think she went to the armory

Tarli nodded and calmed his breath so Softy won’t sense that something wasn’t right, then he opened the doors and headed towards the room filled with uniforms and vests. As soon as he passed the doorway, he spotted Softy trying on clothes, as she was standing in front of a small mirror and staring with an unhappy frown. Tarli could feel his cheeks slowly warm up as he noticed how the uniform was accentuating Softy’s shapely figure, causing the wolf-pony to lose his tongue.

Softy noticed his presence and instantly turned around to face him, exposing her silhouette even more.

“How do I look?” she asked, her tone sounding as if she was simply in a clothes store, trying on a new skirt.

Tarit couldn’t say anything for a long time. The dark blue uniform was adhering to her body almost perfectly. She even cut out small holes on the sides for her wings. Tarli wanted to say that she was looking gorgeous, but instead of that, he blushed even more, making the pegasus giggle.

“I’ll take it as ‘Good’,” she said with an innocent smirk and approached the stunned wolf-pony, which caused him to blush even more.

Get your shit together, mate, Karit saved Tarli from his motionless state, shaking his head to gather thoughts again

“Are you ready?” He asked, trying to forget about what just happened. Softy opened a medbox resting underneath her right wing to show him what was inside.

“Yeah. I took some basic medications, water, some rations in case we meet a hungry wolf out there…,” she began saying things she packed. It was more than necessary, but Tarli wasn’t complaining. He had no mental strength left to doubt her picks.

“Then let’s go,” he said, standing in front of doors, letting her leave first. “Ladies first,” he smiled, raising his paw. Softy snorted.

“I’m still mad because of what you did in the control room,” she whispered, poking his vest before leaving the room.

“Whatever, c….”

Don’t! Karit interrupted Tarli, who noticed Softy’s murderous gaze.

“I think you need to work on your aggression,” he said instead, which was welcomed with another snort from Softy.

__________________

Saint Larki Airport used to be an average civilian airfield based close to the centre, allowing the newcomers to reach the city's centre without spending hours in public transit. Because of its localization, it was crowded almost all the time by wolves from across the country. A majority of it was covered by airstrips and hangars rather than one massive terminal like some airports, where wolves could find a rather small air fleet of surprisingly decent planes. Though small, it was very efficient. When the war had started, thanks to its localization, the airfield had been turned into a forward operating base. The first thing the Army did was replace all the civilian planes with combat ones and any chopper they could get their paws on. War or peace - this place had always been crowded, but now it felt empty, even though there were hundreds of wrecks scattered around. Days of continuous bombardment had turned the airfield into ashes, completely destroying the air control tower which now looked like a broken match surrounded by rubble. The main perimeter managed to somehow endure the carnage, more than likely thanks to its box-like shape, and the fact it was supported by thick metal beams in the case of an airplane crash. However, based on the fact that the eastern wing of the perimity had partially collapsed, leaving a huge hole spewing a column of flames and thick, black smoke, it wasn’t too hard to deduce that something big had to landed a direct hit. Whoever had been there had surely died, either from the explosion, the fire, or the smoke.

Tarli moved his stare across the airstrip, searching for any sign of life, but all he could see was an endless ocean of destroyed bombers, fighters, choppers, and vehicles, being slowly turned into shapeless silhouettes by the never-ending fire. It wasn’t a welcoming place, and he would rather run as far away as possible than take one more step towards this graveyard, but he knew he couldn’t. He had a job to do here.

It’s seen better days, aye? said Karit, dragging Tarli out of his thoughts. He answered with a short mutter, trying to fight off the pictures of what happened to everybody that had appeared in his mind.

“I hope we won’t stay there for too long,” Tarli stated, both to answer the question and to end the silence that had enveloped him and Softy. As he shifted his head to look at her, he found her searching for something in a nearby pile of rubble.

“What are you looking for in there?” He slowly limped towards her as she was just looking at the debris with a brick in her hoof. She sighed and threw the piece back on the rubble.

“So, this is Saint Larki Airport?”She looked towards their destination. It was more a statement than a real question, but Tarli nodded anyway, getting closer to what little remained of the fence surrounding the whole complex.

“Radio beacon should be somewhere,” he murmured as they moved into a labyrinth of wrecks and burned corpses. Tarli started to regret leaving the shelter, but he wasn’t sure if staying there was a good idea either. Especially because of the conversation he’d had with the AI.

“Maybe in the main complex?” Softy proposed, pointing at the dead, box-like building next to the airstrip, but Tarli shook his head.

“I don’t think so. It’s too obvious. I bet it was the first thing that got bombed. Beacon wouldn’t have survived that,” he said, moving deeper into the maze of twisted metal and bone.

A few minutes later, the two of them reached some old, partially burnt green tents on the opposite side of the airfield. Upon laying eyes on them, Tarli knew that these house-like constructions were where the radio beacon would be. It’s less obvious than the main perimeter or air-control tower, so if it survived the bombing runs, it surely had to be there.

Tarli and Softy drew closer to the first tent. The wolf-pony took a deep breath, preparing himself to see even more corpses inside, but as soon as he peeked his head through the canvas flaps, he found that the room was empty, as if nothing had ever been there.

“I guess, it’s empty,” he said, approaching a neighbouring tent. When he peeked into this one, he noticed three small tables with some radio equipment on them, and once again, no rotting bodies. After signalling for Softy to follow him with his head, they both entered and quickly made their way to one of the stations, hoping to find a cable that would lead them to the radio tower. Unfortunately, there didn’t appear to be one there. Tarli’s best guess was that someone had already scavenged and made off with it.

Before he could say anything though, a strange noise, as if something had been sneaking by and accidentally kicked a brick, came from behind. Both he and Softy quickly turned around and peeked out of the tent.

“There,” Softy whispered, pointing at the small pile of twisted metal scraps next to the destroyed fuel truck a few metres ahead. Tarli focused on the position but he couldn’t make out anything of note. He began to slowly approach the rubble, but a sudden pull dragged him away.

“I’ll go. I can run, you not.” Softy pushed past Tarli and began to sneak towards the mangled nest of steel before he had the chance to oppose. Suddenly, the rubble moved slightly, and this time, Tarli could make out some fur in the rubble.

Is that a wolf? He asked himself, looking for anything that would confirm his guess. When Softy was only a few metres from the rubble, suddenly, a huge silhouette jumped out of it.

“Werewolf!” she squeaked, terrified. The two-metres tall, bulky, two-legged creature started to wave his arms around frantically while growling. His dark grey fur and lunar uniform were covered in gasoline and oil, turning them completely black. A vest on his chest was full of holes and scratches, suggesting that he had been in a fight recently. His eyes were closed, and Tarli quickly realized that they were likely glued shut from all the crap covering him, or he was keeping them that way to avoid the pain of having said crap get into them.

“I can’t see! Who’s there! I will kill you all!” The werewolf was shouting, panicked as he looked for something in the rubble he’d come from. Tarli tried to get closer and calm him down, but the troublemaker found what he’d been looking for.

“Fuck! Take cover!” he screamed abnormally loud when he saw that the soldier had pulled out a heavy machine gun. The wolf-pony and the pegasus jumped behind a small wall of sandbags simultaneously, and just in time, as a few seconds later, a burst from a high calibre weapon filled the air, partially destroying their cover. Softy curled up, hiding her head under her hooves, and shaking like a leaf. The werewolf was shooting haphazardly, shouting insults towards the Lizards in an unknown language, and making holes in almost any visible object. These bullets could penetrate basically anything, so Tarli had to act quick, but he had no idea how to calm down an angry werewolf with a huge machine gun. Suddenly though, he remembered something that should work.

“Star!” With that single word, it was like a magic spell had been cast, as the Werewolf instantly dropped his smoking weapon on the ground.

“Gaze!” He yelled back, getting closer to their cover. “I’m blind! I can’t see!” the werewolf began to shout, once again waving his arms around.

“I’m a medic! I can help you!” Tarli shouted again, trying to shout over the gunshots still echoing in his ears.

Without Tarli having to ask, the big soldier sat down and waited for them. When Tarli moved out from behind his cover, he quickly noticed just how huge this wolf was. Even though he was sitting on the ground, Tarli’s head only reached his belly, making the wolf-pony feel even smaller than he usually did. Softy followed soon after, quickly running towards the blinded soldier with a bottle of water in her hoof.

“You need to lower your head, sir…” Despite how helpful she seemed to want to be, her voice betrayed just how unsure she was. It was obvious that she was afraid that the werewolf would grab his weapon again and start blasting. However, the werewolf was nothing but cooperative. He almost lied on the ground in order to give Softy easier access to his eyes.

“Alright, there you go,” she said after a quick rinse.

The werewolf began to slowly open his eyes, exposing his dark-yellow iris. He gazed at the pegasus with confusion as he cautiously stood up. Once on his legs again, he looked at his huge hands and a smile began to spread across his muzzle.

“I can see…,” he murmured with disbelief before moving his eyes to Softy. “I can see!” he roared happily as he gave Softy a hug, raising her like a doll, and squeezing her to his ballistic vest, “Thank you, thank you!”

Despite how gentle the werewolf was likely trying to be though, due to his size and strength, he was not so slowly crushing the poor pegasus, causing her to desperately gasp as the air was being forced out of her.

“Big boy, put her down. Otherwise, you’ll asphyxiate her, mate,” Tarli finally chimed up as he began to approach them. The werewolf instantly dropped the pegasus to the ground at hearing this.

“Pardon me. Are you alright?” He asked, leaning towards Softy who was trying to get some air back in her lungs.

“Yeah, no worries. I’m okay,” she said, standing up and wobbling slightly. She looked at Tarli with a smirk. “Apparently, this vest doesn’t only protect you from bullets,” she said, knocking the vest on her chest.

“Good thing I forced you to wear it,” Tarli answered, looking at the werewolf, who was staring at him strangely. “Who are you?” he asked the tall soldier, mildly terrified.

“Saccot Artla, but everybody calls me Scibbi. 3rd Assault Group, 203rd Assault Div…”

“No way!” Tarli interrupted, screaming happily. He instantly jumped towards Scibbi and hugged his leg, because he was too short to reach the werewolf's neck.

“You’re from the same unit as me. I’m T…”

“I remember you, Tarli,” Scibbi smiled widely, raising his teammate and giving him the same hug as to Softy. The wolf-pony was happy yet also confused, wondering — while fighting to breathe — how the hell he could not remember this big, walking pile of flesh, or what happened to the rest of their squad.

“Also, who is this small, cute creature here?” the werewolf said, leaning towards Softy like a predator approaching its prey, causing her to slowly back away.

“She’s Softy, my friend,” Tarli said as Scibbi started to sniff the terrified pegasus. She kept falling back till the wreckage of a plane prevented her from continuing.

“Smells good, I like you. And a friend of my friend is mine as well,” he said, standing up with a wide smile.

“Alright, we’re looking for a radio beacon that should be around here, so if you have any information on it, we need to talk.” Tarli poked Werewolf’s leg.

____________

“Can you explain what happened to our squad?” Tarli asked to assure himself as they approached a small device standing between the tents. The radio beacon they’d been looking for wasn’t all that impressive. Just a standing pipe wrapped in wires of at least a dozen different diameters. It wasn’t a proper piece of military tech, but it appeared to work just fine.

“Well… when the heli crashed, we decided to fall back to this FOB. When we arrived, well… as you can see, this place ain’t operational anymore. I assume the Lizards sent a flight or two of bombers to turn this place to ashes, so the squad moved towards town hall in order to use their long-range radio and make contact with HQ to check if they’re still holding up, but I’ve lost contact with them,” Scibbi answered while trying to clean his uniform. He eventually noticed Softy staring intently at his heavy machine gun lying next to him. The weapon looked like a box with butt to one end and a barrel half covered by a cylindrical cheese grater on the other.

“So why aren’t you with them then?” Tarli looked at his teammate curiously as he was trying to set up the beacon according to the instruction he’d received from Sarli.

“For several reasons. But there are two that were more important than the rest. The first being that I wanted to wait for you because we knew this FOB was gonna be the first place you’d come to when trying to find us,” Scibbi said, looking around a bit nervously, waiting for Tarli’s incoming question.

“Why did you leave me in the first place, then, huh?” His question was met with a sigh from the larger wolf, like he’d been expecting this. Leaving a teammate behind was never an easy decision.

“We had to go. Your radio was destroyed and we were concerned with all the Lizards that could have been crawling all over the place. Searching for you would’ve taken too much time and put everyone at risk. I was in opposition to abandoning you, but you know how little a private’s words matter.” Scibbi lowered his head as this decision seemed to be weighing him down. Softy quickly approached in order to contain a situation, as she noticed a spark of rage in Tarli’s eyes.

“What’s the second reason?” He asked, trying to change the topic. The fact that his own squad left him behind because of hypothetical contacts that never appeared was driving him mad, but he couldn’t blame him. Though he still wasn’t sure if he believed his version of events.

“Well, we had a radio beacon here. I was left behind to send out a message and try to gather up as many survivors as possible, but nobody answered. I was starting to think I was alone in this city,” said Scibbi, looking at Tarli with a mix of relief and repentance for leaving his friend in a building. Tarli couldn’t see it though, as he was busy with getting the wires of the beacon into the correct positions.

“Alright, I think I’m done,” Tarli said as he double-checked everything.

“I’m sorry for leaving you back in the building.”

Tarli sighed heavily.

“It’s fine. I was just worried about all of you,” he answered, staring at his teammate with a painful smile.

“No, it’s not fine. We all took an oath when we joined the army. Leave no one behind, and we broke it. I should have stayed and tried to find you.”

Well, he’s right. Leaving your squad-mate is never an option for Lunar soldiers. However, they didn’t know you were dead after all. Even I couldn’t have expected you to survive such a crash. Karit’s voice echoed in Tarli’s mind. The wolf-pony knew they were both right, but it happened. Suddenly, Tarli’s ears shot up as an idea came to mind.

“Scibbi, do you know Karit?” he asked his friend, whose eyes widened.

“Well, I know several Karits. Which one do you m…” Scibbi stopped short as he noticed the marks under Tarli’s eyes. As soon as Tarli realized what Scibbi was staring at, he tried to cover his face with a paw, but it was too late. “Wait a fucking second…” he whispered, turning towards Softy who was looking at them confused.

“Would you mind leaving us for a second, my lady?” he asked kindly, though Tarli’s mind was screaming at her to stay. She looked at them with no small degree of confusion, giving herself a few seconds to think about it. She wasn’t sure if this was a good idea, as she still remembered nearly being killed by the one asking.

“I’m not gonna hurt him, we need to talk.” Scibbi raised his paws with a warm smile on his face. Tarli wanted to say something, but he’d gone completely numb. It wasn’t a good idea to resist a request from a creature that big.

“Alright, but I’m keeping an eye on you,” she warily said, slowly walking towards the maze of wrecks. Once she had disappeared behind the closest one, Scibbi pulled out a pistol and put it between them, just out of Tarli’s paws range.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Tarit hissed, seeing his friend’s actions.

“Don’t act like you don’t know what’s going on. You can fool the pegasus, but not me,” Scibbi whispered nodding towards Tarli. “Only two types of creatures have marks like those. Undead and Wanderers. Which one of them are you?” he asked, staring at him dispassionately

Well, I’m fucked. Tarli thought, panicking inside. He began to look for an escape route.

“Don’t even think about it,” said Scibbi, pointing at his gun, lying between them.

“Alright, alright!” Tarli shouted helplessly. He really didn’t want to admit who he was, but it seemed like he had no other option. “I’m Wanderer,” he murmured, feeling worthless, moving his eyes to the ground.

“Really?” Scibbi asked, pulling out his knife from its sheath. Tarli freaked out, thinking that the werewolf wanted to stab him.

“Wait, what are you doing?!” Tarli yelled as Scibbi grabbed his paw and inflicted a shallow cut. From the wound, a mix of blood and dark dust began to run down the fur.

“Seems like you’re telling the truth,” he said, analyzing the liquid. Soon after, he resheathed his knife and grabbed his pistol. The wolf-pony was staring and the werewolf, trying to figure out what he meant.

“We’re gonna have a long talk then,” said Scibbi, sitting down on the concrete floor, and waving his arm towards Tarli, showing him to do the same. The wolf-pony sighed deeply, wondering how long it was gonna take.

“I don’t think this is a safe place to talk. Lizards can find us,” Tarli said, searching for any reason to delay the incoming conversation, but his attempt was meaningless, as Scibbi shrugged and waited for Tarli to start talking.